


Reyna's Miraculous Christmas Fics 2k16

by DarkReyna16



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, MERRY CHRISTMAS BITCHES!!!, With just a pinch of angst, have a bunch of fluff, main ships and rarepairs galoooore~
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 07:39:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9225236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkReyna16/pseuds/DarkReyna16
Summary: All my Christmas gifts in one convenient place! This collection includes: "DJWiFi Snowball Fight", my Secret Santa gift for tumblr user hopelesshogwartian, featuring DJWiFi and an impromptu snowball fight; "Doom Jockey", a re-imagining of "The Bubbler" episode written for Kaylessa; "Lucky Christmas", an Adrienette fluff piece with an ill-timed akuma attack written for clandestincinnamon; "It's a TRAP!", a partial reveal fic based on a prompt by ladrienintensifies, written for edelet, and last but certainly not least, "Four Corners, Straight Line", a partial reveal fic written for SiderealSandman, featuring MariChat, angsty LadyNoir, some awkward Adrienette, and even more MariChat.Merry Christmas again, guys! Glad you enjoyed this Christmas madness! <3





	1. DJWiFi Snowball Fight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [siderealSandman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/siderealSandman/gifts), [edelet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/edelet/gifts), [clandestincinnamon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clandestincinnamon/gifts), [Kaylessa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaylessa/gifts).



> I COULD post all of these individually, I suppose...but it seems like such a huge headache that I won't even bother.
> 
> Anyway! First up, "DJWiFi Snowball Fight", a Secret Santa fic written for tumblr user hopelesshogwartian.
> 
> Enjoy! <3
> 
> ~Reyna

            Alya tapped her foot against the sidewalk. The snow covering it muffled her impatience, but that didn’t mean it was going away anytime soon.

            “They’re late,” she complained again to her single companion: Nino. She felt him glance over at her, but refused to meet his gaze.

            “Yeah,” he said, and left it at that. Alya sighed. She was going to kill Marinette.

            “I know Marinette’s always late for something, one way or another,” Alya continued to rant with her arms folded across her chest, “but what about Mr. Perfect? Why isn’t he here yet?”

            She saw Nino shrug from her peripheral vision.

            “Got me. He’s…kind of late for everything, too.”

            Now Alya huffed. Great. This was fan-freaking-tastic; now she was stuck here for who knew how long with Nino, a boy as dense as dense could get. Marinette was _so_ dead when Alya got her hands on her.

            “I’m freezing,” Nino spoke up. Alya finally deigned to look at him, annoyed when her eyes roved over him of their own accord. Nino had always been a bean pole ever since she’d met him, but in the past couple of years he had shot up a few more centimeters, towering over most everyone in school. Puberty had been very kind to him—the childish roundness of his face gave way to a man’s rugged, angular looks, and it seemed like he was never without scruff on his jaw, despite the fact that he swore that he shaved nearly every day. He was very attractive. Alya hated that. How on earth was she supposed to forget about him when he looked that _that_?

            “So am I,” Alya replied belatedly, folding her arms tighter around herself. If she had known that she’d have to wait out in the cold for longer than five minutes for Adrien and Marinette to show up, she would have grabbed her scarf and a hat before leaving her place. As it stood now, she was bound to lose a toe or finger to frostbite if they were forced to wait out here any longer. “Why don’t we just go inside? It’s not _our_ fault they’re late for lunch.”

            Nino frowned, his brows wrinkling over the rim of his glasses.

            “I don’t wanna eat without them,” he said. Ever the loyal friend, Nino was.

            Alya huffed, tugging her red hair out of the collar of her coat, where it often got trapped, since it was so long.

            “Well what are we supposed to do? Stand out here and freeze our asses off until they decide to show up?”

            “I was thinking maybe we could take a short walk,” Nino suggested instead, gesturing down the road, where an empty park sat nearby. “It’ll warm us up, and we’ll still be close enough to spot them when they finally do get here.”

            Alya eyed the park doubtfully. A walk with Nino? Alone? Why didn’t he just take her back behind the restaurant and shoot her now?

            Alya glanced back at Nino, who was eyeing her apprehensively. Hmm. Didn’t seem like he was too happy about the thought of being alone with her, either…well, wasn’t that just peachy?

            Shrugging, she buried her hands in her pockets and turned, walking towards the park. Muted thuds behind her told her Nino wasn’t far behind; he caught up to her in half a second, and she scowled. Damn him and his long legs.

            Alya closed her eyes for a moment, forcing herself to breathe. When did things between them get so awkward?

            Oh yeah, she remembered: it was at the Halloween party Rose and Juleka had co-hosted for the whole class. The four of them—her, Marinette, Adrien and Nino—had attended of course, and things were fun, as they always were with the four of them. Safe.

            But Alya had been growing bored of ‘safe’. She didn’t get it—when she and Nino had been locked in that cage when the akuma known as Animan had been on the loose, they had discovered just how much they had in common, and Alya thought things were going to progress from there…but then, nothing. Despite all the hints and opportunities she had given him, Nino hadn’t asked her out. And she hadn’t known _why_.

            So then, at the Halloween party just a couple months ago, Alya had gotten really drunk when she spotted some girl flirting with Nino during the party. She didn’t really remember what happened after her fifth cup of punch, but after interrogating a sympathetic Marinette, Alya learned the horrifying truth: she had dumped her half-finished cup of punch all over the girl flirting with Nino, screamed at her “for throwing her hussie ass at her not-boyfriend”, and then had promptly passed out on Nino in a drunken stupor.

            Alya had had trouble looking him in the eyes ever since.

            Two months later, things weren’t much better. Sure, it was fine when it was the four of them hanging out, but Alya and Nino alone was beyond awkward, and Alya had no idea what to do about it. What was worse—or was it better? She couldn’t be sure—was that Nino never brought it up. And that didn’t seem like a good sign to Alya; surely he would have said something by now if he liked the thought of being her boyfriend? But then again, she had made a drunken idiot of herself that night, so maybe he refused to bring it up to spare her feelings? Ugh, why was this so _hard_?

            “Hey, look,” Nino spoke suddenly, snapping Alya out of her thoughts. She quickly turned to him, but he was looking up, his head tilted towards the sky, golden eyes shining. “It’s snowing again.”

            Oh. That was it? He was fascinated by a weather occurrence that had been happening since December hit? Well whoopee, must be nice to be so carefree.

            Alya was further annoyed by the wonder in Nino’s eyes as snowflakes began to dance their way down to earth. Seriously, would it _kill_ him to look at _her_ like that…?

            Her moping was promptly cut short by something cold suddenly splattering against the side of her head. Alya stood there for a second, blinking in surprise.

            What the hell…?

            The look on Nino’s face confirmed that she had, in fact, just been hit by a snowball. He stared at her in shock, and then his eyes went behind her, to something in the background. Alya whirled around in time to see three—no, four—little heads pop out from behind what was clearly a snow fort. The head in the middle, belonging to a little freckled girl with red, curly hair sprouting from her pink hat, bared her teeth at them.

            “Intruders! This is the land of the Snow Sisters! State your business, or prepare for fire!”

            “Snowballs!” One of the other girls corrected her, causing the apparent leader of the snow sisters to roll her blue eyes.

            “Whatever! They know what I meant!”

            Smirking, Alya put her hands on her hips.

            “While it was not our intention to trespass, Snow Sisters, you throwing snowballs first and asking questions later means this is an act of _war._ ” Reaching behind her, Alya grabbed for Nino, catching him by the arm and yanking him forward. “We, the Emissaries of the Frost King, will now have to defeat you.”

            “We do?” Nino asked, looking surprised at this turn of events. Alya gave him a sidelong glance.

            “Back me up here, Lahiffe.”

            “I thought emissaries were supposed to be peaceful—”

            “Nino!”

            “Okay, okay!” Clearing his throat, Nino straightened up, rearranging his expression into one of menace…or at least he tried, before his grin ruined everything. “Prepare yourself, ladies! We are not to be trifled with!”

            “Trifle? I thought that was a dessert?” Alya heard one of the girls whisper to the other, and she couldn’t help but giggle. They were so cute.

            “Incoming!” She shouted, quickly gathering snow and balling it up. The girls squealed and dived behind their snow fort just as Alya lobbed the snowball in their direction. It stopped just short of the fort, but that was just as well—Alya wasn’t planning on actually pelting them with snowballs, but to make it _look_ like she would. After all, a snowball fight wasn’t much fun when all those girls were on the same side, was it?

            And so the impromptu snowball fight began.

            Alya had to admit, though these kids couldn’t be older than twelve, their aim was impeccable; it was hard to make snowballs when she constantly had to duck for cover.

            And sometimes, she wasn’t fast enough.

            “Look out!”

            Something bright green was suddenly shoved in Alya’s face, and a dull thud told her that a snowball from the Snow Sisters had been blocked. She glanced up to find Nino behind her, holding a child’s sled, which he was currently using as a shield. Alya felt herself warm at how… _determined_ he looked to keep her from being relentlessly pelted by snowballs, even as he had to duck fire himself.

            “My hero,” she teased him as he ducked behind the impromptu shield with her. Nino glanced over at her, grinning.

            “I’m better defense than I am offense,” he admitted, blinking as more thuds sounded against the sled. “You fire, I’ll block.”

            “Deal.”

            “Give up yet?” Called the leader of the Snow Sisters. In the ceasefire, Alya made it a point to poke her head out from behind the shield and stick out her tongue.

            “We’re just getting started, Slush Sisters!”

            “That’s _Snow_ Sisters, you Frost King lackeys!”

            Alya laughed as she scooped up more snow to toss over the shield, causing the Snow Sisters to squeal and duck for cover again, though the snowball splattered harmlessly against their snow fort. And so the battle continued, with Alya nearly suffering a severe casualty when Nino was hit in the face with a snowball. He made a show of dying in slow motion, letting out a dramatic “nooooo!” for good effect, and the sisters giggled as Alya pretended to perform CPR to revive him (only the compressions, though…there was no mouth-to mouth for obvious reasons.) But the war threatened to rage on after Nino ‘came back to life’, and more snowballs flew…at least until a window across the street opened up, and a man called for the girls to come in for lunch.

            “Coming!” Hollered the leader of the Snow Sisters. As the other girls rushed off, however, she lingered a moment to grin toothily at Alya and Nino. “Thanks for playing with us! It was fun!”

            “Anytime!” Alya called back, waving after the girl as she scampered off after the others.

            “Be careful who you throw snowballs at, though!” Nino called after her, “not everyone will want to play!”

            “Look at you, teaching kids morals and crap,” Alya joked, nudging him in the side before resuming their interrupted walk through the park. Nino grinned a little.

            “Well, somebody has to. They were lucky you were willing to play along, but I don’t think anyone else would appreciate an unexpected snowball to the face.”

            “Who says I appreciated it? I challenged them to a snowball fight so I could get them _back_ for that snowball they threw at me!”

            “Uh-huh,” Nino said, his eyes knowing, “which is why you missed with every snowball you threw at them.”

            Alya felt her face grow warm. Damn it, was she really that obvious?

            “They got lucky, that’s all,” she insisted anyway, her nose in the air. She jumped when something cold suddenly touched her cheek, jerking her head up to stare at Nino’s laughing face.

            “That was a funny face,” he teased, letting the snow fall from his hand as Alya scowled at him. “Guess you kind of suck with snow, huh?”

            “Oh, so you wanna play, too?” Alya ducked down, hurriedly gathering a handful of snow. “Fine, then get ready to—hey!” She cried once she looked up and found that Nino was no longer beside her…but he was actually running _away_. That coward! “Lahiffe, get your ass back here!”

            And then Nino, cheeky as anything, dared to turn his head and stick his _tongue_ out at her as he ran! Alya stared after him in open-mouth shock before she managed to get herself into gear and chase after him, growling under her breath to mask the laughter that was dying to get out. He dodged the couple of snowballs she managed to fling at him, but abruptly met his end when he tripped over a snow bank that turned out to be deeper than he anticipated. Scenting blood, Alya sped forward and pounced on him before he could get up, dumping snow onto the hat portion of his head.

            “Ha! Who sucks at snow now, Lahiffe?”

            “ _Shit_ , that’s _cold!_ Okay, okay, lay off, Alya! I give up! You’re queen of snow, all right? Just— _eeek_ —enough with the snow!”

            Alya cackled as Nino wriggled underneath her, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He shivered, glasses askew as he tried to brush off all the snow that had been dumped on him. Feeling a little bad now, Alya decided to help.

            “Here,” she said, removing his glasses for him and reaching forward to dust the snow from his face with a gloved hand, her grin softening into a smile. “I’m happy as long as you learned your lesson. Now hold still so I can get all this snow off you.”

            “The snow you _put_ there,” Nino grumbled, his expression souring. Alya’s smile became apologetic.

            “I promise to get it all off, don’t worry,” she assured him, still dusting snowflakes off him with her free hand. “I’m not about to let you freeze.”

            Nino was looking at her funny, Alya noticed after a moment. His eyes were wide and staring, and his cheeks had grown ruddy, though she just assumed that was from the cold. Still, why was he looking at her like that…?

            Alya’s lips parted, intending to ask—

            Nino suddenly leaned forward, his nose bumping into hers, his cold lips pressing against hers.

            And Alya froze.

            What…?

What?

 _What_?!

            Nino must have taken her lack of response as a bad sign; he pulled back, staring at her, golden gaze suddenly anxious.

            “What—” Alya began, but was cut off as Nino stumbled into speech.

            “Shit, Alya, I’m sorry,” he hurriedly apologized, raising his hands, as if he was afraid Alya was going to hit him. “I didn’t mean to force that on you! I would never, _ever_ do something like that, because that isn’t cool, and I’m not the type of guy to act like it _is_ cool, and I’m so sorry, I—”

            “Nino,” Alya cut in, a hand to his lips to halt further speech. “Let me finish: what took you so long to do that?”

            Nino blinked; this question apparently left him so dumbstruck that Alya had to wait about ten seconds before he could respond.

            “O-oh,” he muttered, glancing away, and then back to Alya, his eyes still narrowed anxiously…or, actually…it looked like he couldn’t see.

            Alya pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, replacing Nino’s glasses back in front of his eyes. He blinked again; Alya watched as his eyes seemed to adjust, and he let out a relieved breath that made her laugh.

            “Sorry. Forgot I was holding them.”

            “It’s okay,” he replied, clearing his throat. He glanced up at Alya…and then looked away again, looking embarrassed. “…Actually, this conversation might’ve been easier if I still couldn’t see you all that well…”

            “Nino,” Alya coaxed, turning his head back to look at her with both her hands on his cheeks. She raised an eyebrow, and Nino let out a soft sigh.

            “I don’t know,” he admitted, staring up at her with a soft gaze that embarrassed her. “I just…I mean, I’ve been wanting to kiss you for a while, but I never knew when would be the right time, or even if there _was_ a right time for something like this. And the longer I waited, the more I thought it had to be this perfect moment, with, like, doves flying off into the sky or something…” Nino frowned. “Sorry, that’s Adrien talking. He didn’t really help much.”

            This made Alya laugh. That definitely sounded like Adrien; boy was a hopeless romantic. It was clear he was too heavily influenced by chick flicks…but Alya digressed.

            “What made you decide that now was the right time?”

            Nino half-shrugged, though he looked so embarrassed that Alya was certain there had to be a reason. Before she could ask, however, Nino spoke again.

            “I…don’t know. Just…the way you look now, with snowflakes falling all around you…”

            To Alya’s disbelief, the same look of wonder Nino wore when he watched the snow falling earlier entered his eyes again…but now he was looking at _her_ , as if she was a miracle or something. He reached forward, cupping her cheek, and Alya laced her fingers through his, determined to keep his hand there for as long as she possibly could.

            “…I really like you, Alya,” Nino said softly, his breath coming out in puffs in the chilly air. But Alya was more than warm as she grinned at Nino.

            “Even though I made a drunken fool of myself at Rose and Juleka’s Halloween party?”

            Nino chuckled.

            “That only made me realize how much I like you,” he assured her, his free hand running through her hair. “I like the sound of being called your boyfriend…even if it was slurred when you first said it, ha ha.”

            “Oh shut up,” Alya huffed, and Nino chuckled again. Alya couldn’t stay mad, not when his smile was that beautiful. She bumped her forehead against his, and their glasses clattered together, making them both laugh. Oh man…they were both going to have to deal with being blind whenever they wanted to make out, weren’t they? Not that they would be looking at anything anyway, with their eyes closed, but still…

            “Heeeey! Alya! Nino!”

            They glanced up, finding their two tardy friends in the distance, waiting in front of the restaurant they were meant to be dining at. Marinette seemed to be half-hiding behind Adrien, tugging on his free arm, but he was waving his other arm over his head, grinning widely as he called in their direction:

            “If you two are done making out in the snow over there, let’s have lunch!”

            “We _would’ve_ been having lunch already if you two were decent enough to show up on time!” Alya called back, immediately on the defensive as she climbed to her feet and helped Nino to his. “What were _you_ _two_ up to to prevent that, huh?”

            As the pair in the distance blushed and began to stammer lame excuses over each other, Nino slipped his hand into Alya’s and gave it a squeeze.

            “Let’s take another walk after lunch,” he insisted in a hushed tone as they approached their friends. “There’s something I wanna ask you.”

            Alya smiled to herself.

            It was about time.


	2. Doom Jockey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up! "Doom Jockey", written for Kaylessa~
> 
> I had a lot of fun creating a new akuma for Nino, because let's face it, we all know he deserved better than The Bubbler. (It is a common theory that he got stuck with that hideous costume because Gabri--er, I mean, HAWKMOTH--hates him, LMAO.)
> 
> Enjoy! <3
> 
> ~Reyna

            Nino burst out of the Agreste Mansion, breathing hard with his hands clenched into fists.

            Never before had he been so _humiliated_! The _nerve_ of that guy, talking to him like he had no sense! Was a birthday party for his _own son_ really so much to ask?!

            “Nino, wait!”

            Nino paused, averting his face from his best friend, who had come running after him. He tried to get his temper in check—after all, he had no reason to be angry when it was _Adrien_ who was getting cheated out of a birthday party. And he had never even had _one_ …

            “I’m sorry about that,” Adrien apologized, laying a hand on Nino’s shoulder. “My father is…difficult.”

            Difficult? _Difficult?_ French poodles when they were wet were _difficult!_ His dad was—

            ‘ _Be_ cool,’ Nino reminded himself, feeling nothing but pity wash through him at the defeated look on his best friend’s face. Just how many times had he been disappointed like this by the man he called ‘father’?

            “It’s…just best to go along with what he says,” Adrien sighed, his expression crumpling further.

And Nino _hated it._ He _hated_ that look his best friend was forced to wear, all because he couldn’t have a birthday party, something that should be a _basic right_ for any kid, ever! What was his dad’s _problem?!_

            “But it’s not _fair_ , Adrien!” Nino burst out, staring at his friend incredulously. “This sucks!”

            Adrien flinched, as if he had been stricken. Nino paused at that reaction, suddenly feeling guilty. He shouldn’t be taking out his frustrations on his poor best friend, who literally had to _live_ with that man he called ‘father’. Huffing to himself, Nino flung his bubble container off to the side to relieve some of his frustration. It didn’t work, and so he stomped off to cool off, missing the faint voice trailing behind him:

            “Thanks anyway, Nino…”

 

* * *

 

            The shattering beats in Nino’s headphones sounded angry. He was _still_ boiling, and now, it was affecting his music, too.

            Nino growled to himself, leaning over his turntables.

            Seriously: what a jerk! Adults just thought it was fine to do whatever they wanted, didn’t they? Well, if Nino had his way, he’d throw a _huge_ party for Adrien, like, a _global_ party. The music would be awesome—because he would DJ, of course—and everyone would dance, dance, dance the night away, like, dance until they dropped, until they were literally so exhausted from dancing that they passed out. Now _that_ would be an awesome birthday party for his best friend…

            …It was too bad he couldn’t make that happen.

            The record scratched, and Nino cursed under his breath, clutching his headphones.

            If he was a world famous DJ or something, with lots of money and lots of power, he could throw the _greatest party ever_ for Adrien, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing his father could do about it. Oh, if only…

            …Huh…weird. Nino was starting to feel odd…maybe he needed to lie down…

            And then, quite suddenly, a deep voice whispered to him from somewhere in the shadows of his mind…shadows Nino hadn’t even been aware of until now…

            “ _Doom Jockey, I am Hawk Moth. I will help you gain the power you desire, to make the world dance to the beat of your drum…and all you’ll have to do in exchange for this power is to help me retrieve what was stolen from me from Ladybug and Chat Noir. Do we have a deal?_ ”

            Nino—no, _Doom Jockey_ —felt himself grin wickedly.

            “Yes, Hawk Moth.”

 

* * *

 

            Adrien picked at his lunch, his head propped up by a hand.

            What a disaster that was, having Nino meet his father. Sure, Gabriel Agreste was a hard man to please, but to actually ban Adrien’s best friend from the mansion? That was just too cruel.

            But what could Adrien do about it?

            ‘ _Nothing,_ ’ he answered himself, sighing and swallowing the last bite of his meal before pushing himself to his feet.

            “Lunch by myself again. Happy birthday to me. Yay,” he sighed sarcastically, taking up his bag before exiting the dining room. He paused in the foyer, listening to the stillness of the mansion. “Nathalie? Father?”

            There was no answer.

            They were hard at work, he supposed. As usual—so what if it was his fifteenth birthday? Why should work stop just because of that?

            Adrien felt his shoulders slump of their own accord. He really shouldn’t be surprised—this was just par for the course. Just because Nino wanted him to have a birthday party didn’t mean Adrien would actually _get_ it, after all…

            …Huh. What was that noise…?

            Curious, Adrien moved to the front door, pulling it open—

            Pounding music sounded through the air, and there was a _crowd_ of people dancing on his front lawn.

            Adrien paused, dumbstruck. What was going on here?

            Abruptly, a figure landed next to him. Adrien stumbled back a step, blinking wide eyes at the person beside him, dressed in cool clothes that were all black and blue—black hat, dark blue shirt, black, stylish vest, black jeans, blue sneakers. There were large headphones over his ears—one black and one blue—and a pair of blue-rimmed, black sunglasses on his face, nestled above a grin that looked strangely familiar…

            Whirling disks hovered on either side of the figure. Carefully positioning his black and blue gloved hands over them, the figure dragged his fingers across the whirling disks.

            There was a loud scratch, and suddenly, the pulsing beats that had been playing before ceased, and the crowd paused.

            “Hey hey! The birthday boy has arrived, so the party has _officially_ started!” He called to the crowd in a _very_ familiar voice.

            “…Nino?” Adrien questioned, but his voice was lost amidst the cheering of the crowd below them. The boy beside him grinned again.

            “The name’s Doom Jockey, and it’s time to dance until you drop!”

            He dragged his fingers across the right whirling disk that hovered beside him. Suddenly, a jagged blue music note emerged, floating over the crowd before it exploded in a shower of sparkles. As the sparkles descended and melted into the crowd, a new beat began, and the crowd roared its approval, pulsing to the new beat.

            Adrien, for his part, could only stare around in awe.

            A birthday party, just for him? That was… _amazing._ But…

            While Nino’s—Doom Jockey’s?—back was turned, Adrien edged back into the mansion, taking the stairs two at a time until he reached his room. There was a tiny tap on his shoulder, and Adrien glanced down to find Plagg there.

            “What’s your problem? Relax! You’re getting the party you’ve always wanted!”

            “But Nino’s been akumatized!” Adrien protested, “we have to help!”

            “But you may never get this chance again!” Plagg countered, waving a paw. “Have a little fun while you’re father’s away! And then, after the party, we’ll save Nino, and everything will go back to normal!”

            Adrien frowned. He didn’t like this situation very much. The silver ring he always wore—the Black Cat Miraculous—glinted on his finger as he stared down at it, conflicted.

            Nino had been akumatized. Somehow, some way, Hawk Moth had gotten to his friend and turned his phenomenal DJ skills into weapons for evil. And that was inexcusable.

            …But…was it _really_ evil…? After all, the guy was just here to throw him a birthday party, from the looks of things…was that really so terrible?

            “…You’re right,” he said softly, though his fist tightened with stronger conviction. “This might be the first day in my life that I actually get to do what _I_ want, for a change.”

            “Atta boy,” Plagg drawled, zipping back into Adrien’s shirt collar before Adrien flew down the steps and threw his front door wide open. If Doom Jockey wanted to give him a birthday party to remember, who was he to disagree?

            “Hey, there he is!” Doom Jockey cheered when Adrien reappeared out in the yard. “Was beginning to think you didn’t wanna party, dude!”

            “Oh, I’m ready to party,” Adrien assured Doom Jockey with a grin and a thumbs up. “So play all your best tunes!”

            “You’re the birthday boy!” Doom Jockey said, and he dragged his fingers across the right whirling disk once again. A new song began to play, this one with a faster beat. A purple music note floated over the crowd and shattered, much like the blue one, and the dancing rhythm changed to match the beat. Adrien happily threw himself into the crowd, joining the mass of grooving bodies. People wished him happy birthday as he passed, and he couldn’t keep the wide grin off his face. His very first birthday party, with all his friends here. It wasn’t perfect, of course—it was a shame that his father was not present—but Adrien would take what he could get.

            “Hey! This is a great party, isn’t it?” He asked of Rose as he danced past her, giddy. “I think so—it’s my first one!”

            Rose smiled slightly, giving him a thumbs up…but there was something off about her expression. Adrien saw more of it when she turned away, dropping her smile, her expression giving way to exhaustion. Huh…strange…

            As Adrien looked around, he began to realize that Rose’s face was not the only exhausted-looking one there: a lot of the guests at his party seemed tired, almost as if they were ready to drop. How odd…did parties usually tire people out so quickly?

            “Adri-honey!”

            Adrien was caught off-guard as Chloé suddenly appeared, launching herself into his arms.

            “Oh, Chloé, hey,” he greeted, swaying with her as she continued to dance to the beat of the music while in his arms. “Um…is it me, or does everyone seem a bit off to you?”

            Chloé rolled her baby blue eyes.

            “Forget about _them_ , Adrien! Dance with me!”

            As she issued this command, another music note floated over the crowd, this one pink. Before it could explode into sparkles like the others, however, something red and black spotted flew through it, and it dissolved like water. Adrien’s head jerked up, his mouth gawking open as he spotted her on the roof of the mansion.

            _Ladybug was at his party._

            “Hey! Who’s harshin’ my jam over here?!”

            Doom Jockey jumped up, hovering in the air with the help of rocket jets embedded in the bottom of his sneakers. His whirling disks continued to hover next to him as he pointed an accusing finger up at Ladybug.

            “Nobody asked you to crash this party, Ladybug!”

            “What party?” Ladybug replied, tossing her yo-yo casually as she frowned down at Doom Jockey. “All I see is a hostage situation! You’re forcing everyone here to dance the night away, whether they like it or not!”

            Adrien froze. Oh no…was that true…?

            He glanced around him at all the tired faces of his classmates, his friends, at how they _still_ continued to dance, even though their expressions were clearly screaming for rest.

            And, though Doom Jockey’s spell was the reason, Adrien couldn’t help but feel responsible for this, too. If only he hadn’t been behaving so selfishly…

            “Adrihoney?!” Chloé protested when he tore himself from her arms and sprinted back into the mansion, not giving her a second glance. He felt bad about leaving so suddenly, but this was not right…he had to help his Lady fix this, no matter what.

            “Plagg, I’ve been an idiot,” he huffed in the sanctuary of his room, his kwami appearing to give him a look that was almost concerned. “It was fun while it lasted, but the party’s over. Transform me!”

            Chat Noir appeared on the scene minutes later, just in time to witness utter bedlam.

            The crowd that had turned up for his party were, well, dancing themselves to death, it seemed. Many of them were slumped over, as if the only thing keeping them upright was the will of Doom Jockey’s beats.

            Speaking of, where _was_ he?

            “Hahahaha! You can’t dance forever, Ladybug! Well, you can, but it won’t be because you want to! Now _hold still!_ ”

            Chat Noir looked up just in time to see a pair of wide bluebell eyes before suddenly, he was on the ground, struggling to regain the breath that Ladybug knocked out of him.

            “A-as usual, My Lady…” he huffed, struggling to sit up with her weight pressed against him. As she rubbed her forehead where their heads had knocked together, Chat Noir gave her a charming smile. “You take my breath away.”

            Ladybug’s gaze went flat.

            “Not now, Chat,” she shut him down as usual, climbing to her feet and helping him to his. “We kind of have a situation here?”

            “Of course; we wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t. It’s the only time we meet,” Chat pointed out, assuming a battle stance as Doom Jockey appeared once again, hovering above him, whirling disks at the ready beside him.

            “Oh, two on one, is it? That doesn’t seem very fair,” Doom Jockey drawled, grinning wickedly as he rested an almost casual hand against his left whirling disk. “But you know what they say—it takes two to _tango!_ ”

            Before either of them could react, Doom Jockey slid his fingers forward on the left whirling disk, and a red music note shot out at them, hitting them both. Suddenly, Chat’s body was no longer under his control, and before he could stop himself, he was pulling Ladybug _much_ too close to him, their bodies pressed flush against each other. Chat felt himself blush, but he had no time to fully process what was happening, for they were suddenly dancing the tango, just as Doom Jockey willed it.

            “Oh _great,_ ” Ladybug huffed, and Chat saw that she was just as embarrassed as he was by this situation, especially when her leg hitched around his hip, making both their faces flame red as Chat’s hand cupped her thigh of its own accord, leaning her back into a dip. “How’re we supposed to get out of this?”

            “I…I don’t know,” Chat Noir mumbled, too flustered to even make a joke out of this situation. From his first birthday party to his first sensual dance with a girl, the love of his _life_ , no less…despite the situation, this was shaping up to be his most memorable birthday yet… “Wh-what do we do, Ladybug?”

            “I’m thinking,” Ladybug insisted, though from the look on her face, it didn’t appear that she was getting very far in the thought process. As Chat twirled her around, her back pressed into his chest, Doom Jockey snickered at them from above.

            “Ooh, love is in the air, huh? Then I guess you two lovebirds won’t mind if I take your Miraculous!”

            Oh, they were in trouble. How could they fight if all they could do was dance?

            “Chat,” Ladybug muttered urgently as Doom Jockey began to descend, approaching them. “The next time you grab my hip, try to reach my yo-yo.”

            “Uh, I can’t exactly control my movements here, Buginette—”

            “Just try!” She hissed, whirling away from him for a moment before Chat Noir caught up with her, pulling her into another dip just as Doom Jockey reached them, applauding their performance mockingly.

            “That’s perfect, stay just like that,” he insisted, and they indeed paused; it seemed that his word was enough to control their movements as well. As Doom Jockey got uncomfortably close to Ladybug, his fingers twitching in a sinister fashion as his hands approached her ears, Chat became desperate. Somehow, he managed to force his hand to move, clasping Ladybug’s yo-yo just as Doom Jockey touched Ladybug’s earrings. With a strength Chat often found himself tapping into when his Lady was in trouble, he managed to yank her away from Doom Jockey’s clutches just before he could remove her earrings. She twirled away, spinning in tight circles as Doom Jockey pursued her, knocking Chat Noir out of the way, curses on his lips. As he fell to the ground, Chat realized that his body was his own once again, and he could actually _do_ something now, thank god.

            “Ladybug!” He called, hoping against hope that this would actually work. “Catch!”

            He tossed the yo-yo through the air, and it arced overhead as Ladybug still spun around and around, like a red and black spotted top. She was forced to a halt when Doom Jockey grabbed hold of her hand, but he pulled her to a stop so abrupt that she arched back, an arm outstretched—

            Her yo-yo fell right into her awaiting palm.

            Perhaps the magic of her yo-yo was enough to break the dancing spell—or maybe it was because Ladybug no longer had her dancing partner, and the magic was disrupted because of it. Whatever the cause, she was able to wrench herself away from Doom Jockey’s grasp, and Chat bounded to her side as she tossed her yo-yo into the air.

            “Lucky Charm!”

            And today’s lucky item was…

            “A wrench?” Ladybug sighed as the large red and black spotted tool fell into her grasp. Chat gave the wrench an odd look as well.

            “What, are you gonna use your plumbing skills to get us out of this?”

            “I’ll figure something out,” Ladybug insisted, glancing around. “Can you distract him in the meantime?”

            “Of course, My Lady,” Chat replied, giving a quick bow. “By the way, try to aim for his headphones. I have a feeling those might be where the akuma’s hiding.”

            “Hmm…okay,” Ladybug replied, giving him a firm nod. “Thanks, Chat.”

            Chat grinned, practically glowing. He nearly forgot what he was supposed to be doing until Ladybug shoved him out of the way of an angry-looking music note that flew by.

            “Go, go!” She insisted, sending out her yo-yo and zipping out of the way to make use of her Lucky Charm. Chat unclipped his baton, extending it and bashing through the music notes Doom Jockey tried to send his way.

            “You’re not gonna make me dance if I don’t wanna, Doom Jockey!” He insisted, dodging around the slew of lethal music notes sent his way.

            “Haven’t you heard about what happens to friends who don’t dance?” Doom Jockey quipped, though his teeth were clenched like he was annoyed. That meant Chat was doing his job well, at least.

            “What about friends who _force_ their other friends to dance?” Chat pointed out, ducking yet another dangerous note. “I don’t think anyone would wanna be friends with them!”

            “You don’t know anything!” Doom Jockey snarled, and he actually hurled one of his whirling disks at Chat this time. Chat yelped, but still managed to think fast, summoning his Cataclysm to destroy the disk. Doom Jockey didn’t appear to notice, however. “This party was _for_ a friend, you leather-wearing cat boy! It’s not _my_ fault these people don’t know how to have fun! And Adrien _deserves_ a party! He’s the nicest dude, and I don’t see why he shouldn’t have a slammin’ party just because his father’s a tightwad!”

            Chat Noir paused, in the middle of raising his baton to wreck Doom Jockey’s other whirling disk.

            Oh…that was right…all Nino wanted was a birthday party for Adrien…

            Chat’s sentiments threatened to get in the way of him doing his job, but then a rush of water blasted by him, hitting Doom Jockey square in the chest. His headphones were knocked loose, and Chat snatched them out of the air, tossing them to Ladybug, who snapped them over her knee.

            “You’ve caused enough harm, little akuma!” Ladybug scolded as the accursed akuma flitted out from the headphones. Whirling her yo-yo, she declared, “I free you from evil!”

            With a well-practiced throw, Ladybug flung her yo-yo through the air and caught the akuma.

            “Gotcha!”

            Chat watched as Ladybug released the harmless butterfly, still as awed by her as the first day he first saw her do it. She was so amazing…

            “Wha…where? Dude, what happened?

            Chat whirled around, rushing to Nino.

            “Hey. You okay?” He asked, laying a hand on his de-akumatized best friend. Nino adjusted his glasses, blinking his golden eyes for a moment.

            “Uh, yeah…” Nino frowned, glancing around at everyone who had finally stopped dancing, relief in everyone’s expressions. “…Do I…want to know what just happened…?”

            “It wasn’t your fault,” Ladybug assured him as she approached, kneeling down next to Chat and laying a hand on Nino’s shoulder as well. “Your good intentions were just taken advantage of, that’s all.”

            Nino glanced at the crowd again, and Chat _hated_ to see the look of horror hidden in his eyes. This never should have happened to Nino…not to anyone, even. But to have Nino, who was so positive and so supportive of him, who only wanted to throw him a birthday party, be taken advantage of by someone like _Hawk Moth…_

            “I…I’m sorry,” Nino apologized in a quiet voice that was not like him at all. Chat Noir squeezed his shoulder and forced himself to smile.

            “Don’t worry about it. I really think your friend appreciated what you were trying to do for him. That was really nice. You’re a good person, Nino.”

            “Oh, uh…thanks,” Nino said, blinking as if he were startled. “But, uh…how do you know my—”

            Two identical chirps from two different Miraculous sounded. Chat Noir gripped his wrist just as Ladybug put a hand to her earring.

            “Gotta go,” they said in unison, glancing at each other. Chat Noir raised his fist, and Ladybug, smiling, bumped her knuckles against his. “ _Bien joué_!”

            Chat watched as Ladybug zipped away, soaring through the air like she had wings. So beautiful…

            The sound of Nino getting to his feet distracted him, and Chat turned, eyeing his friend carefully. He still looked really shook up…

            “So! Uh, you need some help getting home?”

            “Oh…no,” Nino said with a slow shake of his head. “I’ll be fine. I just, uh…gotta think about some things, I guess.” He rubbed the back of his head, glancing away. “Can’t believe I almost ruined my best friend’s birthday, though…”

            “You know, I really don’t think that’s true,” Chat assured Nino, smiling when Nino glanced at him, looking doubtful. “I saw Adrien before I showed up to crash the party, and it looked like he was having a good time. He was worried about you, though. I’d go home and call him so he knows you’re okay.”

            “…Yeah,” Nino said after a moment, nodding slowly, though he continued to look preoccupied. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Uh, thanks.”

            “Anytime,” Chat said. He watched as Nino slowly made his way through the exhausted crowd, his shoulders rounded. Chat hated to see him like this, and he almost followed him home anyway, but then his Miraculous gave another beep, reminding him that he didn’t have much time before his transformation broke. Chat sighed, but made his way back into the mansion while no one was looking.

            Nino would be all right. It was his nature; he never let anything bring him down for long. Adrien would just have to make sure that his friend knew he was there for him. After all, if Nino could be there for Adrien, even as an akuma, then Adrien could be there for him no matter what.


	3. Lucky Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next! "Lucky Christmas", written for clandestincinnamon~
> 
> This was a cute prompt, and I had a lot of fun with it. I wish I had done some more things with the classmates, but having them there (and having Chloé and Nath flirt and be adorably ridiculous) made me happy, so I guess it's fine. XP
> 
> Enjoy! <3
> 
> ~Reyna

            “Okay, where are the napkins? We have enough cloth napkins, right?”

            “Yep.”

            “Then what about the silver rings to go on the napkins, did we buy enough of those?”

            “Yes, dear.”

            “But what about—”

            “Mari?” Adrien interrupted, catching his girlfriend by the aproned waist as she threatened to dart past him a third time to do an unnecessary check on their supplies. Her red sweater dress clung to her frame under her festive apron, and part of her dark hair was tied back into a red ribbon, her eyes shadowed in silver, cheeks painted red, lips defined by red lipstick. She was an absolute vision…save for that stressed out crease in between her brow. Adrien held her still, tilting her head to look at him as he slowly raised an eyebrow. “ _Breathe._ ”

            “But—” Marinette protested, biting her lip and looking anxious. It seemed she needed help relaxing…and so Adrien leaned down to give her the kind of kiss he knew stole her breath away. She couldn’t use it to fuss about things she didn’t need to fuss about then.

            Indeed, when he pulled back, Marinette blinked at him a couple times, looking slightly punch drunk. Adrien grinned.

            “Better?”

            Marinette sighed and gave him a look.

            “You cheater,” she accused, and Adrien’s grin widened.

            “It’s not cheating; it’s strategy,” he insisted, hands leaving her waist to cup her face instead. “Now please calm down. We’ve double _and_ triple-checked everything, okay? Nothing is going to go wrong tonight.”

            “But it’s our _first_ Christmas dinner, Adrien,” Marinette protested, chewing on her lip again. Adrien wished she wouldn’t; she would tear it off completely at the rate she was going. “I’ve never hosted a Christmas dinner before, and it’s our first Christmas in this apartment.” She waved a hand around at their cozy little place, at their carefully decorated living room, and the breakfast bar that divided said living room from their modern kitchen. This place hadn’t been easy for them to find, and even less so to move into, thanks to the complaints of Gabriel Agreste…but it _had_ been a steal once Sabine realized she knew the realtor from her market visits, the one who absolutely adored her cookies. As soon as the “you’re too young to move in together” debate had finally been put to rest, Adrien and Marinette had set up shop, and it had almost been a year since then.

“What if the food doesn’t turn out right?” Marinette fretted, breaking Adrien out of his fond reverie. “What if the music sucks? What if—”

            “Buginette, _please_ chill,” Adrien insisted, pressing a thumb to Marinette’s lips to halt further panicked speech. “It’s going to be _fine._ You’re the embodiment of good luck, remember? If your boyfriend, who happens to be the epitome of _bad_ luck, hasn’t screwed anything up by now, then things will be fine.”

            Marinette’s brow puckered at that.

            “But wouldn’t that mean we cancel each other out?”

            Adrien gave her a flat look.

            “We’ve been over this.”

            “Yeah, but—”

            The doorbell rang, interrupting the start of a discussion they had had more times than Adrien could count, ever since they learned of each other’s superhero identities. Marinette fluttered on the spot, looking like she was torn between answering the door and jumping out a window when Adrien shushed and soothed her once again with a kiss.

            “I’ll get it.”

            “Okay.”

            Adjusting the tie under his sweater vest, Adrien unlocked the door, pulling it open to reveal Alya and Nino, the first to arrive, naturally.

            “Merry Christmas, guys,” Adrien greeted, stepping aside to let them in. “Can I take your coats?”

            “Well, aren’t you the dashing host?” Alya teased him, shrugging out of her winter coat to reveal the velvety green dress she wore underneath. Nino snorted as he handed off his jacket to Adrien as well, adjusting his dress shirt, green to match his girlfriend.

            “That’s dashing by you, Babe? Dude’s wearing a sweater vest. A _Christmas_ sweater vest.”

            “I like it,” Adrien protested with a frown. “It was a gift from Mari’s parents.”

            “And what did you do to make them hate their future son-in-law?” Nino teased, laughing as Adrien made a face at him before he tucked Nino’s and Alya’s coats into the hallway closet.

            “Oh, hi guys!” Marinette greeted them as Nino and Alya made their way through the hallway and into the kitchen of Adrien and Marinette’s cozy little apartment. As the women exchanged hugs, Nino lifted his nose into the air and inhaled deeply.

            “Mmm…smells good in here, ‘Nette.”

            “Thanks,” Marinette said with a tremulous smile over Alya’s shoulder. “Everything’s almost ready…I’m just waiting for the ham to finish baking.”

            “Do you want some help setting the table?” Alya offered after she pulled back and seemed to get a good look at Marinette’s anxious face.

            “Oh…no, that’s okay, I-I can do it…” Marinette trailed off at the shrewd look on Alya’s face. Without comment, she led Marinette out of the kitchen and plopped her down on the couch in the living room.

            “Nino, would you give Adrien our party gift?”

            “Ta-da,” Nino said, presenting a bottle of sparkling rosé with a flourish and a grin. “It’s your favorite, ‘Nette!”

            “Ah…good call,” said Adrien, once he realized what the production was for. “Do you want a glass now, Mari?”

            “God yes, please,” Marinette huffed, making Alya laugh.

            As Adrien plucked a wine glass from its proper cabinet, Nino helped him out by getting the bottle of wine open with a corkscrew, and a minute later, a glass of fizzing wine was offered to Alya, who placed it in Marinette’s slightly shaking hand.

            “Sip,” Alya ordered, and Marinette obeyed. “Now breathe.”

            Marinette let out a sigh after a mouthful of wine, briefly closing her eyes.

            “Thanks,” she thanked them with a smile that was a little less anxious. “And sorry. I don’t mean to be so…”

            “Marinette-y?” Alya supplied the missing word with a grin. Marinette made a face at her before sighing again.

            “Yes,” she admitted, taking another sip of wine. “It’s just…it’s our first Christmas dinner, so it has to be perfect.”

            “Why perfect?” Nino wanted to know.

            “So people will want to come again next year!” Marinette answered.

            “We’re doing this again next year?” Adrien asked, blinking in surprise. Marinette let out another sigh.

            “Well, maybe not, I don’t know. It’s too soon to tell…but part of that all depends on how tonight goes, right?”

            “You’re putting too much pressure on yourself, hun,” Alya insisted, rubbing circles into Marinette’s back. “Tonight doesn’t need to be perfect—if you throw another party next year, people will come back because they love you.”

            Marinette gave Alya a flat look.

            “Will _you_ still come back if the food is terrible, or a fight breaks out or something?”

            Alya grinned.

            “A chaotic Christmas? Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

            Marinette laughed, which was Alya’s goal, Adrien suspected. In any case, she was beginning to look calmer now, so when the doorbell rang again, Adrien volunteered once again to go answer it.

            “Merry Christmas, Adrien!” Sabine greeted as soon as she and Tom stepped over the threshold, both punctuating their holiday wishes with hugs. Adrien returned the gestures two-fold, beaming at the couple that had pretty much taken him in like a son ever since he came into Marinette’s life. Whether they knew it or not, he owed the both of them so much.

            “You’re wearing our present!” Sabine noticed after he had taken their coats; he closed the hall closet to find her beaming at him, and a part of him surged with pride.

            “I love it,” he enthused, and Sabine bestowed another hug upon him as Tom clapped a hand to his shoulder that made his knees buckle.

            The doorbell rang again, signaling more guests, and Adrien directed Tom and Sabine through the hallway to the kitchen so Marinette could greet them before he opened the door again. This time it was Rose and Juleka, both beaming with delight at the sight of them. Adrien could barely exchange hellos with them before the doorbell rang again, and soon it became impossible to close the door with the influx of people that arrived: Kim, Max, and Alix, with Kim and Alix trying to fit through the door simultaneously as Max gave a longsuffering sigh behind them; Ivan and Myléne, a year out of _lyceé_ and still as in love as they’d ever been; and then Sabrina, followed by Chloé and…Nathanael??

            “Uh,” Adrien began, trying to figure out how to phrase this question without offending as he took their coats and tore his gaze from their entwined hands. “So! Um…when did, er, you two, um—”

            “We’re just dating, Adrien,” Chloé finished for him with a roll of her baby blue eyes, tucking a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “It’s not like we’ve just invited you to a wedding.”

            Nathanael raised an eyebrow.

            “We just started dating, and you’re already talking about weddings?”

            Chloé scowled at him.

            “I was being _sarcastic._ ”

            “Really? Sounded like there was just a little note of hope there…”

            “There was not!”

            “I already gave you my Christmas present, Chlo. There’s no ring coming.”

            “I wasn’t expecting one!”

            “It’s fine—they’re always like this,” Sabrina whispered to Adrien as she passed, letting the bickering couple pass by into the kitchen. “I was shocked too, when they got together, but they’ve been pushing each other’s buttons for months in between working out details for the new art exhibit they’ve been trying to set up…I guess it was inevitable?”

            Adrien gave a shrug. He wasn’t about to pretend to understand it—even as they bickered, they did not once let go of each other’s hand. If they were happy, he supposed that was all that mattered.

            With the last of the guests finally present, the Christmas party could finally begin. Adrien held a hand out for Marinette to join him at the front of the living room, and she obliged. But Adrien could feel her shaking, and so he slipped his arm around her, giving her a discreet squeeze before he addressed the full living room.

            “Thanks for coming, everybody. As you know, this is our first time hosting a Christmas party, so _please_ be gentle.”

            “No promises,” Kim teased, only to be elbowed in the gut by Alix. Adrien glanced down at Marinette in concern, worried that Kim’s jibe would rattle her. But Marinette merely rolled her eyes and gave him a knowing look that seemed to question why they thought inviting Kim was a good idea. Adrien grinned in relief and kissed the side of her head. He knew she’d be fine: Marinette was tough as nails, even when she wasn’t flying around Paris in a black and red spotted suit…

            Alya’s phone began to ring. She cringed and mouthed an apology, getting up from Nino’s lap to answer it.

            “Well, dinner should be ready in ten minutes,” Marinette said, gesturing towards the set table at the back of the living room. “Feel free to sit wherever you’d like; there’s room for everybody.”

            As the guests migrated towards the table, with only minor skirmishes about who would sit where, Adrien paused his girlfriend with a hand to the small of her back.

            “You okay?” He murmured in her ear. Marinette, though her smile started off shaky, met his eyes with a strong, clear gaze.  
            “Yeah,” she said, resting her hands on his shoulders. “I’m fine. I have no idea why I thought this would be so scary…it’s just our friends and my parents. What could go wrong?”

            “Hey,” said a harried-sounding voice, interrupting their moment. Adrien and Marinette glanced over, meeting the scowl on Alya’s face. “I’m sorry, hun, but I just got a call from my boss to cover an akuma attack that’s happening in the city _right now._ ”

            Adrien and Marinette froze.

            “R-right now?” Adrien stammered, cringing as he noticed the look of naked panic taking over Marinette’s eyes. He couldn’t believe this…and it was their first Christmas party as the hosts…

            “Yeah, I know, it _sucks._ ” Alya huffed again, flipping dark red hair out of her face. “I’m so sorry, Mari, I _really_ want to be here, but Eric’s being a _total_ dick, and I really don’t have a choice in the matter. I’ll try and be back as soon as I can, okay?”

            “…Yeah, okay,” Marinette replied, slowly coming back to life, giving her friend a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not mad. It’s work, I understand.”  
            “I’m still sorry,” Alya apologized again, sliding her arms around her best friend and giving her a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be back as soon as Ladybug fixes this whole mess.”

            “Ladybug. Right…bye, Alya,” Marinette said, waving to Alya, who hurried down the hall for her coat. Nino, noticing her departure, got up from the table, his brows furrowed as he followed her.

            Sabine’s mother senses must have been set off by this event; she was immediately on her feet, moving towards her daughter with a look of concern.

            “Is everything all right, Marinette?”

            “Um, yeah…” Marinette began, biting her lip as she glanced up at Adrien. “Um, Mama, can I ask you for a big favor?”

            “Of course, honey.”

            “I need to talk to Adrien about something for a second, but, the ham should be done in about—” The oven chimed. Marinette let out a sigh. “—Now. I’m really sorry, Mama, I want you to be a guest, but would it be too much to ask for you to—?”

            “I’ll take care of it,” Sabine promised, standing on her tiptoes to kiss her daughter’s forehead. With a gesture to Tom, her parents converged onto the stove, where the food sat ready and waiting to be served. As they were doing that, Marinette took hold of Adrien’s hand and tugged him down the hall to their bedroom. She closed the door behind them, leaving the room in semi-darkness, but Adrien could still make out her bluebell eyes in the moonlight filtering through the curtains of their bedroom, shining with anxiousness.

            “Adrien…what do we do?”

            “I—”

            There was a swishing sound, and suddenly, the kwamis appeared as well.

            “Marinette, what’s wrong?” Asked Tikki, concern in her sweet little voice.

            “We’ve been hidden here just as you asked, so any problems that have occurred are _not_ our fault!” Plagg insisted, the hint of a hiss in his tone.

            “This is bigger than a party problem,” Marinette said, her voice dark, “there’s an akuma.”

            The pause was brief, but thick with tension.

            “Paris needs Ladybug, then,” Tikki decided.

            “And Chat Noir,” added Plagg.

            “But we’re hosting a Christmas party!” Marinette protested, and Adrien knew without looking that she was chewing on her lip again. “We can’t just _leave._ People’ll notice! Oh, Adrien, what are we gonna do? What _can_ we do?”

            Marinette bumped her head into Adrien’s chest, her hands clutching at the front of his sweater vest. His arms immediately went around her to comfort her, but sadly, he could only do so much in that regard. Honestly, what _could_ they do? It wasn’t like they could leave the party when it was just starting, but it wasn’t like they could ignore the akuma, either. They had a job to do when it came to protecting Paris, but Marinette had been _so_ looking forward to this party and stressing about everything being perfect…funnily enough, neither of them had counted on an akuma attack…so what could they do?

            Adrien let out a sigh through his nose as a plan began to formulate in his mind. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, and Marinette would like it about as much as Adrien did—not at all—but when their options were pretty much only A and B at this point…

            Gently, Adrien pushed Marinette back so he could look at her, brushing dark hair from her wide, worried eyes.

            “Paris needs Ladybug,” he echoed Tikki grimly. “But if we both leave, our guests will definitely notice. So…if you want me to go, I’ll go, and we’ll make something up later. But if you want me to stay and distract from your absence, I can do that, too.” He cupped his girlfriend’s face, keeping her fretful gaze. “What do you want to do, Mari?”

            Marinette bit her lip, but Adrien could see the calculation in her eyes as she went over their options quickly in her head. The conclusion she came to didn’t seem pleasing to her, from the way she huffed, but when she glanced back up at him, her face was set.

            “…I love you,” she said, and because Adrien had not been expecting it, it flustered him.

            “Oh, uh…love you, too,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. Plagg made a noise of disgust, but both Tikki and Marinette giggled, the latter stretching on her toes to kiss him.

            “I’ll try and make this as quick as possible,” she promised him, taking a step back and beckoning to her kwami. “Tikki: transform me!”

            Adrien shielded his eyes against the flash of pink light that transformed his girlfriend into the superheroine of Paris. Sending him a quick wink that sent heat flooding through his face, Ladybug darted to the window, casting out her yo-yo to swing away into the night—

            “Mari, wait!” Adrien protested, crossing the room quickly and taking hold of her arm before she could go anywhere. Ladybug paused, looking like she wanted to ask what was wrong, but Adrien leaned down to kiss her, and all words were lost until he pulled back. “Be careful,” he wished her, anxiousness now beginning to creep through _him_ , because though he knew Ladybug was amazing all on her own, he still hated the thought of her going out there to face an akuma without him. The way her fingertips grazed his cheek told Adrien that Ladybug understood, and she gave him a small smile before she swung away into the night.

            Which left Adrien to entertain their guests without her for an indeterminate amount of time. Great.

            “Well?” Plagg questioned, his green cat’s eyes glittering in the dark. “What now, kid?”

            Adrien sighed, but squared his shoulders and straightened his tie. He was a model, not a host, but it didn’t mean that he couldn’t be charming in his own right. All he had to do was make sure everyone was too busy to notice that Marinette had vanished, and he’d be all right. And he could do that, definitely. Piece of cake.

            “Wish me luck, Plagg,” Adrien muttered as he crossed the bedroom to get to the door. Behind him, Plagg snorted.

            “What, _good_ luck? Ha!”

            ‘ _So much for a vote of confidence,_ ’ thought Adrien as he paused to take one more breath before pulling the bedroom door open and stepping out into the hall.

            “Dude,” Nino said immediately, making Adrien jump, because he hadn’t expected him to be there, “everything okay?”

            “Oh, yeah,” Adrien said immediately, laughing in a voice that was a bit too squeaky to be convincing as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Mari’s, uh, not feeling too well, though. I, uh, think it’s nerves or something. She doesn’t wanna worry everybody, though, so the party will go on without her for a bit. Let’s eat, huh?”

            Nino gave him a strange look, but Adrien didn’t give him a chance to question him; he hurried forward into the living room, asking gaily whose drink needed to be refreshed, since Tom and Sabine had the food portion covered. As a few takers raised their hands, Adrien took up a wine bottle and poured, switching into a ‘gracious host’ persona he hoped would be believable until Marinette got back.

            He could totally do this…as long as everyone was having a good time, they’d be too distracted to notice that Marinette was gone. This was going to be easy.

 

* * *

 

            Marinette was too popular for her own good.

            No matter what they were doing or how Adrien tried to distract them, he could only go about five minutes before someone was asking about her:

            “Adrien, is Marinette all right?” Sabine wanted to know as she helped him serve dessert. Adrien assured her she was fine, and only narrowly avoided Tom going into their bedroom to check up on their daughter by asking him to regale the party with stories of how he and Sabine had first gotten _Bolangerie Patisserie_ up and running, a subject he knew Tom liked to discuss at length.

            “Is ‘Nette sick or something?” Nino inquired when the party moved on from the delicious meal to decorating the very large tree Adrien and Marinette had purchased for the purposes of this party. Adrien, handing Nino a fresh box of colorful Christmas ornaments to pass out, told Nino that Marinette just needed a minute (or several) to herself, and that she’d be back before Nino knew it.

            “Seriously, what kind of hostess leaves her party all up to her co-host?” Chloé drawled, inspecting her nails as they began to set up for the gift exchange. “That’s rather _rude,_ don’t you think?”

            “Didn’t you once leave one of your father’s political functions for a significantly smaller party uptown?” Nathanael remarked casually after a sip from his wine glass. Chloé’s face paled, and then flushed red.

            “That was completely different!”

            “How so? If I remember correctly, hadn’t he asked you to come to support him?”

            “Oh, _must_ you remember _every little thing?_ ”

            “I can’t help remembering that night,” Nathanael said, smiling slightly around his wine glass. “It was _my_ party you came to, after all.”

            Chloé flushed a deeper red, and Adrien left them to it, while inwardly reflecting that, while he never would have saw it coming, Chloé and Nathanael _were_ sort of sweet together.

            Time was running out for him, however—it had been no less than forty-five minutes that Marinette had been gone, and he didn’t think he could distract from her absence for much longer. It was just a miracle that Alya wasn’t here, or—

            “I’m back!” Alya huffed, bursting through the unlocked door and rushing back in, shrugging off her coat and tossing it to the side. “Sorry I was gone for so long!”

            ‘ _Of course,_ ’ Adrien thought with an inward groan. Things were about to get rocky…

            “Babe, you’re freezing,” Nino commented as he embraced his girlfriend, but she waved off his concerns as she took refuge in his warmth.

            “Well it’s cold outside. _Anyway,_ tonight’s akuma attack was _spectacular!_ Some Grinch-themed guy was going around terrorizing people and stealing stuff, but then out of nowhere, Ladybug showed up to save the day! It was only her tonight, though, I don’t know _where_ Chat Noir was—”

            As Alya updated them on the most recent Ladybug sighting, Adrien tried to subtly edge his way to the bedroom. If Alya was back, then _surely_ Marinette had already returned…

            “—and just when he thought he had her, BAM, Ladybug traps him in the Lucky Charm chimney, smashes the possessed item, and it was a Merry Christmas once again. It was _awesome._ Hey, Agreste, where’s Marinette?”

            Adrien froze in the act of sneaking back to his bedroom.

            “Uh…” he stuttered, turning back to the party and noting with a cringe that he had everyone’s complete attention. This would not end well…

            “She’s been gone for an awfully long time,” Rose remarked, frowning in concern.

            “Yeah, she practically missed most of her own party,” Alix added, her hands on her miniscule hips. “What’s up with that?”

            “She’s, uh, not feeling very well—”

            “Why, what’s she got?”

            “She seemed perfectly fine, earlier…”

            “Adrien,” Sabine said, stepping forward and turning the full force of a mother’s concern onto him, “what’s wrong with Marinette?”

            “I…” Adrien began, feeling cornered. His eyes darted around, searching for something, _anything_ that would help him get out of this situation—

            Unfortunately, his eyes met Chloé’s, whose face abruptly took on an expression of shock.

            “ _Wait a minute!_ ” She exclaimed, gaping at Adrien in a way that made his heart jump into his throat. Oh no…had she figured it out?! “Adrien, don’t tell me—”

            “Chloé—” Adrien tried to halt her, raising his hands, but she barreled on without mercy:

            “—Is Marinette… _pregnant?!_ ”

            The unexpected question startled Adrien into silence. He stared at Chloé, wondering how on earth she had come to that conclusion, but she seemed to choose to interpret his silence as a confession.

            “I don’t believe it! Marinette’s _pregnant!_ ”

            The party erupted and converged onto Adrien, everyone talking over each other in their haste to congratulate him:

            “You _dog,_ Adrien!”

            “Wow, not even a full year of living together! You guys work fast!”

            “To be honest, I was expecting wedding invitations first, but y’know, whatever works for you guys!”

            “We’re going to be grandparents! Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it!”

            As everyone got carried away with Marinette’s mythical pregnancy, Nino seemed to take pity on his poor, gaping friend who could only stand there and wonder how things had gotten so complicated.

            “This calls for another drink!” He called over the chatter. “Who wants more wine?”

            There was a resounding chorus of agreements, and as the party moved to the breakfast bar for wine refills, Alya stepped up to Adrien, an eyebrow quirked.

            “Marinette’s not pregnant,” she said point-blank. Adrien sighed.

            “No, she’s not,” he confirmed, equal parts relieved and anxious as Alya continued to eye him like a hawk. “How’d you know?”

            “Because I know my best friend,” Alya reasoned with half a shrug. “And she had a glass of wine earlier, which is generally a no-no for pregnant women.” She leaned forward, arms crossed as her glasses flashed ominously. “But if Marinette’s not pregnant, then where is she and why has she apparently been gone for most of the party?”

            Adrien cringed. Damn, Alya was too sharp for her own good. Now what?

            There was a click behind him, and Adrien whirled around to find Marinette emerging from their bedroom.

            “Oh, Mari,” he sighed in relief, rushing forward to embrace her.

            “Hi,” Marinette replied, giggling a little at the kisses Adrien pressed against her cheek. “Sorry I took so long.”

            “I don’t care about anything other than the fact that you’re safe,” Adrien assured her with another kiss to her forehead before he pulled back a little, abruptly cringing. “But, uh…due to, er, certain events…everyone thinks you’re pregnant now.”

            Marinette stared up at him in mute shock.

            “What?!”

            “Blame Chloé. It was her idea.”

            Marinette groaned.

            “Oh, of course—when does she _not_ make things difficult?”

            The sound of high heels clacking against the hardwood floor alerted them to Alya’s presence.

            “Hey girl, sorry I had to dip out for a while,” she apologized, swatting Adrien out of the way so she could hug her best friend. “Nino said you’ve been missing for most of the party, too, though. And I know better than to fall for this ‘pregnant’ bullshit, so what’s up?”

            “Nothing, I’m fine,” Marinette assured Alya with another hug. “Just needed to take care of a few things on my own for a while…” She pulled back, smiling at the sight of her parents and friends chatting and laughing with each other as Nino continued to pour everybody drinks. “…But it looks like things are just fine here, huh?”

            “Yeah,” Adrien agreed, and Marinette beamed up at him, stretching onto her toes to kiss his cheek.

            “Thank you,” she whispered to him, her tone beyond grateful. And Adrien smiled, just happy that he was able to save her Christmas while she was out saving Paris’.

            “Of course, My Lady. Merry Christmas.”


	4. It's a TRAP!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next! "It's a TRAP!", written for edelet~
> 
> Hahaha, this prompt was fun. XD I had to get permission from tumblr user ladrienintensifies before I wrote it, and she was really gracious about the whole thing, so I have to make it clear that this is a spin-off ending for her prompt, and should not be taken as the actual ending. XP Other than that, have fun with this Ladrien prompt that I immediately turned into LadyNoir the first chance I got. XD
> 
> Enjoy! <3
> 
> ~Reyna

Well, this was a fine mess he found himself in.

Adrien growled under his breath—he couldn’t growl out loud due to the gag in his mouth—and tried once again to break his restraints. No luck. Of course.

If his father could see him now, Adrien would never hear the end of it:

_"You see?_ This _is why you need your bodyguard_ at all times, _Adrien! I see now that it was a mistake to assume that one would do the job—from now on, you will be required to travel with no less than seven bodyguards. No, strike that—too risky. It would be better for you to just remain in your room until the end of time. Don’t give me that look, Adrien: this is for your own good.”_

…Okay, so he might not say _exactly_ that, but Adrien’s mental exaggerations weren’t far off.

Adrien huffed and struggled against his bindings once again. He couldn’t afford to sit here and be a damn hostage! Volpina was using him as bait, to lure out Ladybug and Chat Noir! And Chat Noir had to warn her!

…But it wasn’t like he could do much without Plagg. He still had his ring, but without his kwami, it was just another accessory. Useless, just like he currently was. And while Adrien hoped Plagg would somehow be able to locate Ladybug, his hopes were not high. After all, Adrien didn’t even know who Ladybug was…

His bindings absolutely refused to budge. Adrien sighed again, but this time it was in defeat. It was no good. He would have to sit here, and wait to be rescued.

And he _would_ be rescued. With or without her partner, Ladybug herself could always be counted on to save the day. It was why she was Paris’ most adored superheroine, after all.

As if thinking about her was the key to summoning the cavalry, suddenly, the door was kicked in. Adrien winced in the sudden light, blinking several times to get his eyes to adjust. Once they did…

Adrien gasped. That silhouette in the doorway was absolutely unmistakable.

“Ladybug!” Adrien cheered…or he tried to, anyway. Stupid gag.

“Adrien!” Ladybug cried, and as she rushed forward, Adrien was dazzled as he always was around her, captured by her beauty, her strength, her bravery…

But the moment was brief: as she stopped blocking the door, Adrien got a good look at who was bringing up the rear. And all he could do was gape in shock.

Wait…that wasn’t right. It was _impossible._

How could _Chat Noir_ be here…when _Adrien_ was tied up right here?!

“Chat, watch my back! I’ll get Adrien!” Ladybug ordered, dropping to her knees beside Adrien.

“I always do, My Lady,” his imposter assured her, smirking _his_ smirk as he sauntered forward carefully, as if he had all the time in the world. As he approached, Adrien began to squirm and thrash, staring wide-eyed at the imposter Chat Noir, having unpleasant flashbacks to Copy Cat.

“Adrien! Adrien, please! Calm down!” Ladybug cautioned him, pulling her hands from his bindings to raise them, her bluebell eyes beseeching. “You’re safe, I promise!”

No he was _not_ safe! And neither was Ladybug! Couldn’t she see that all was not well here, that _that_ was not Chat Noir?!

“Imposter! _Imposter!_ ” Adrien tried to insist, but this _damn gag was still stuffed in his mouth!_ He tried to get it out using his tongue, desperate to communicate to Ladybug that she _could not_ trust that leather-clad cat boy that was _not_ him, his thrashing increasing the closer he got to them.

“Adrien!” Ladybug seized his shoulders, and with her strength, made him hold still. Her eyes burned into him as she stared at him, as if she wanted to will him to believe whatever she said. “Listen to me: you’re going to be _fine._ We’re going to get you out of here, I _swear._ Chat, these cuffs are iron. I need a Cataclysm.”

“Certainly,” drawled the Chat Noir imposter, casually reaching for something behind him. “Just a second, My Lady…”

Adrien protested as hard as he could through the gag in his mouth, wishing that Ladybug would just _take it out already_ so he could talk to her properly! Apparently, the thought was somehow conveyed to her—or perhaps it had just occurred to her that he could really stand to be ungagged right now—for she gave a tiny yelp, her face flushing to match her suit and mask.

“I’m so sorry, here, let me hel—!”

Just as she reached for his gag, Adrien saw it—the long, orange and white-striped, rod-shaped object the imposter Noir pulled from behind him. It was not Chat’s baton, nor should it have been, but it was still familiar: the long line of holes gave it away. Before Adrien could do more than let out a muffled exclamation, that flute was around Ladybug’s throat. She choked, her eyes going wide with shock as the pressure of the flute bent her backwards, towards Imposter Noir.

“Oh, Ladybug,” purred the imposter, his grip tightening on either side of the flute, further constricting Ladybug’s windpipe. Ladybug gagged, her hands scrabbling at the flute, but the imposter’s grip was too strong. “Why would you do this? We were having so much fun…but then you had to ruin the game by making this too _easy._ ”

Adrien yanked on his restraints so hard that his already sore wrists threatened to snap. He ignored the pain, only able to focus on what was happening in front of him: Ladybug, being choked to death, right before his very eyes. Even as he thrashed desperately to get free, even as Ladybug’s legs kicked out behind her as she fought her assailant, it seemed to be futile. The Imposter Noir began to laugh a dark laugh that was made all the more eerie because it was _Adrien’s_ voice coming from him, and it _hurt_ to see this, like Adrien was actually doing this, like _he_ was strangling his partner with that damned flute and that manic grin, like _he_ was the one gleefully watching as Ladybug’s skin began to change, getting paler and paler until it was almost blue, her movements losing energy—

Something black whizzed by Adrien’s sight. He blinked, startled, whipping his head around to follow the movement, and just managed to catch the tip of a tiny cat’s tail.

“Plagg!” He cried into his gag, voice cracking with the strain. He had never before been more pleased to see the kwami in his life.

Said kwami did not stick around—he darted away behind Adrien, too far for him to follow with his line of vision. It became apparent where he had gone, however, as soon as the cuffs holding him abruptly fell to the floor with a clatter.

Immediately, Adrien launched himself forward, pelting into both Ladybug and Imposter Noir. The move was unexpected; Imposter Noir swore vehemently, his grip broken on Ladybug due to the tackle. Adrien knocked the flute into the air before he rolled away with Ladybug, hovering protectively over her as she gasped for air, massaging her neck.

“Volpina,” he snarled once Imposter Noir regained his feet, his image melting away to leave an all-too-familiar figure in an orange and white jumpsuit with fox ears sprouting from her dark hair. “I see you’ve picked up a few tricks.”

Volpina pursed her lips, appearing to size him up with her dark green eyes.

“Hmm. In a bad mood, Adrien? You’re usually a lot more polite to me.”

“You _kidnapped_ me.”

“Well yes, but it was nothing personal. I needed you to draw out Ladybug and Chat Noir…though it seems the cat chose not to come out to play, today. What’s wrong, Ladybug—did you make your kitten mad? Take away his yarn ball or something?”

“D-don’t talk about Chat Noir that way,” Ladybug huffed, her voice constricted as she struggled to sit up, a hand still at her throat as she glared at Volpina. Morbidly, Adrien wondered how many bruises had appeared in the flesh of her neck, thanks to Volpina’s flute.

Volpina gave a careless shrug.

“Fine. If you don’t wanna hear the truth, that’s not my problem—”

“What would _you_ know about _truth_?!” Ladybug demanded to know, an arm shooting out to protect Adrien as she crouched in front of him, her voice growing stronger, the edge of fury within it distinctly heard. “All you do is spout lies, lies, and _more_ lies! Is it any wonder that you’re all alone, working for the _supervillain_ of Paris?!”

Volpina’s eyes flashed before they narrowed, her teeth clenching in a sneer. Adrien saw her foot slide towards her fallen flute, and he tried to prevent this, but Ladybug shoved him back again with her arm.

Oh, right…she believed him to be a civilian right now, someone she had to protect, someone who wouldn’t stand a chance against Volpina…

From his peripheral vision, Adrien spotted Plagg hovering by the chair he had been bound to, just out of sight of anyone else.

This situation was not good—he needed to transform. But how? Other than that chair, there was no furniture in this dark, dank room, so unless he somehow got outside long enough to transform—

“At least I wasn’t _abandoned_ by my so-called _partner!_ ” Volpina spat, stealing Adrien’s attention. He gaped at her in open-mouthed shock. Him? Abandon _Ladybug? Him??_

“Chat did _not_ abandon me,” Ladybug hissed as she pushed herself carefully to her feet.

“Ladybug—” Adrien tried to warn her as Volpina’s foot rested on the end of her flute, but Ladybug splayed a hand, nonverbally warning him to stay put behind her. Which frustrated Adrien; couldn’t she sit still and listen to him for _one second?_

“Oh really?” Volpina drawled, her hands on her hips with a cruel smirk marring what would have been an otherwise pretty face. “So tell me, then: why isn’t he here? You’re here, facing off against a much stronger opponent, with the added liability of having to protect a hostage.” Her smirk widened. “And yet, your precious partner is nowhere to be seen. Are you _sure_ you haven’t been abandoned? Are you _sure_ that Chat Noir didn’t just realize that you were fighting a losing battle, and just decided to do the smart thing and walk away?”

“Chat wouldn’t do that to me!” Ladybug asserted, stomping her foot in outrage. “We’re partners!”

“Some partner,” scoffed Volpina with a sneer. “If he _actually_ had your back, he’d be here. Face it, Bug—you’re all alone now.”

Oh, he hated this.

He hated the lies Volpina was spouting, just to try and rattle Ladybug. And he hated the way they seemed to be _working_ , with the way Ladybug’s shoulders began to tremble as she stood in front of him, back ramrod straight, her body held stiffly, as if she was trying to hold herself together through sheer force of will.

But most of all, he hated that she seemed to fear that he _had_ abandoned her. Really, didn’t she know better by now? Hadn’t they been working together for a _year_ at this point?

Did she really, _truly_ believe that anything short of hell and high water would keep Chat Noir away from her when she needed him?

Locking his jaw, Adrien got up, side-stepping Ladybug.

“Chat Noir would never do that. And I’ll prove it,” he said lowly, stepping away as Ladybug tried to make a grab for him, her eyes wide and questioning his sanity. But nothing, not even his nerves, could deter him from what he was about to do now…

Holding out his right fist towards the abandoned chair, Adrien squeezed his eyes shut. Here goes nothing…

“Plagg: transform me!”

As the power of the Miraculous overtook him, Adrien was distinctly aware of two separate gasps from the two women in the room. Clearly, this was a shock, and he only dared to open his eyes when the transformation was complete, and he straightened out of his cat pose, turning sheepishly to Ladybug.

“…Uh, hi, Buginette,” he greeted, glancing shyly at her with a small, wavering smile. “Um, sorry I’m late. Won’t happen again, promise.”

Ladybug did not react. She was too busy staring at him in open-mouthed shock. Which, naturally, made Chat even more nervous. Was it _that_ surprising that he turned out to be Chat Noir…?

Volpina certainly seemed to think so; her scream of outrage was enough to drag Chat’s gaze away from his speechless partner and back onto her.

“ _You!_ ” She shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at him, her foot stomping on the end of her flute to flip it up into her free hand. “All this time…all this time, it was _you?!_ ”

“Surprise?” Said Chat Noir with an uncertain shrug. Volpina’s face flushed red, and she gripped her flute tightly, lowering her head. She seemed…almost mortally offended that Adrien Agreste turned out to be Chat Noir. Why? What was so upsetting to her about this new development? Was it because Adrien had neglected to tell Lila that he was a superhero? Or was it something else…?

There was a low sound coming from Volpina; it grew louder with every passing second, and though Chat, at first, couldn’t make out what it was, by the first minute, he understood completely: it was laughter. Very sinister laughter. Laughter that did not mean anything good.

“Ha ha…ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Volpina laughed so hard that she doubled over, clutching her stomach with her free hand as she loosely gripped her flute in the other. Chat eyed her warily, torn between the desire to ask what was so funny…and the certainty that he didn’t want to know.

But, ready or not, Volpina ended up telling him anyway.

“You’re so stupid! You dumb blonde! Hahaha, you really _are_ an idiot!!” She cried, glancing up with tears in her eyes as she continued to laugh, pointing a shaking finger at him. “You’ve just given me _everything!_ Not only do I know your secret identity now, but _Hawk Moth_ does, too! You’re—you’re so _screwed,_ hahahaha!”

“No!” Ladybug jumped past him, lunging for Volpina, but the sly villain tossed some sort of dark pellet to the ground, which exploded forcefully into billows of white smoke. Chat coughed and covered his mouth, eyes watering as he waved through the smoke.

But it was no good: Volpina was already gone.

Ladybug swore, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“Great,” Chat heard her grumble, “just perfect.”

“It’s okay,” Chat said automatically, though he knew it was anything but. In fact, his Adam’s apple was in grave danger of being shoved through his throat, thanks to his heart pounding against it.

This wasn’t one of Volpina’s lies this time. Chat could feel it—Hawk Moth now knew his secret identity. And though that would undoubtedly cause him a _lot_ of trouble…all Chat could focus on was the fact that _Ladybug_ now knew who he was.

So…what did that mean for them?

As Chat approached her side, he couldn’t help but notice when Ladybug stiffened. She eyed him from her peripheral vision, and Chat stared back, attempting to read her face for a clue as to what she could possibly feeling right now. But, for once, his partner gave nothing away. And it was starting to freak him out.

“…Ladybug…?” Chat tried, getting more and more anxious the longer Ladybug stayed silent. She stared at him for three more seconds…and then she turned away. Chat felt his heart plummet to the pit of his stomach.

“Let’s go,” Ladybug said lowly, walking stiffly towards the door. “We have to find Volpina and purify her akuma. Again.”

“Right…” Chat muttered as Ladybug dashed off ahead of him. He followed her at a slower pace, his shoulders slumped.

She hadn’t wanted to know. From the beginning, it was Ladybug’s desire that they not tell each other their secret identities. And Chat had broken that rule just to prove a point. No wonder she seemed to be mad at him…

He sighed. He never would have thought that being kidnapped would be the least of his problems today, but then, he never thought there would come a day where Ladybug would have trouble looking him in the eye, either.

 

* * *

 

Volpina was nowhere to be found.

Ladybug growled in frustration, her yo-yo whirling to echo her temper.

Great, _just_ great. It wasn’t enough that her mind was whirling over today’s… _developments._ Now, they had an akuma on the loose and unaccounted for in Paris, and her partner…her partner, it turned out, was the love of her life as well, all wrapped into one pretty package.

Super.

Speaking of Chat Noir…

“Ladybug?”

Ladybug closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe. It would not do to lose her head right now—she was Ladybug. And as much as she wanted to outright _panic_ over this new development—

Something warm touched her shoulder, and she jumped, wide eyes going to Chat. He peered at her, his eyes tight, cat ears drooping, his hand slowly lowering back to his side from where it was outstretched, towards her.

“…You’re angry,” he muttered, casting his eyes down. Another stone dropped into the pit of Ladybug’s stomach, to join the ones of dread and confusion, though this one had a different name: guilt.

“I’m not angry,” she said, tearing her eyes away from Chat with some difficulty. “I’m just frustrated. If we don’t find Volpina—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” From the corner of her eye, Ladybug saw him step closer. “You _know_ that’s not what I’m talking about.”

…Oh no. They were going to have to talk about this now, weren’t they?

“Not now, Chat,” Ladybug tried to brush him off, moving towards the edge of the roof as she tried to think fast. Now, where else hadn’t they checked?

Just as she was about to send out her yo-yo, however, her arm was caught.

“Ladybug,” Chat Noir said, and Ladybug _hated_ how strained his voice sounded. “Talk to me. _Please._ ”

“I _can’t_ ,” Ladybug insisted, wrenching her arm out of his grip. “We _have_ to find Volpina, Chat!”

“So, what? You’re just going to ignore this? You’re not even going to acknowledge that you know my real name, now?”

“Chat, we don’t have time for this!”

“Why not? What’s your hurry?”

“ _Volpina’s_ my hurry, Chat!” Ladybug burst out, finally whipping around to glare at him. Did he really not see how dire this situation had become?! “She’s out there somewhere, threatening others, or worse, meeting with Hawk Moth! And we can’t let her do that, now that she knows who you are! Do you know what Hawk Moth might _do_ with information like that?! Don’t you think everyone else can _wait_ until we find her and stop her?!”

Chat gave a startled blink. And Ladybug just stared at him, seeing the face under his mask somehow, though the connection between him and Adrien was still hard to believe. They were just so…so _different!_ If she hadn’t seen him transform with her own eyes, she _never_ would have believed that they were the same person!

But…they were. They _were_ the same person. Adrien, sweet and shy Adrien was goofy, punny Chat Noir. Her crime-fighting partner, the one she had been relying on for nearly a year, was also the boy she was in love with.

Oh god, Chat Noir had been flirting with her this whole time… _Adrien had been flirting with her for almost a year!_

Oh god. Oh _god._ Ladybug could feel her face heating up, and she hastily avoided his eyes.

“You’re…worried about me…?”

The uncertain question had Ladybug’s gaze snapping to him once again, and she frowned in confusion.

“Of course I’m worried,” she insisted, looking at him as if he had grown an extra head. “You’re my partner, Chat. And you’re in _danger_. Why wouldn’t I be worried?”

Chat’s—Adrien’s— _Chat’s_ cheeks turned pink.

“I just thought…the way you were acting…” he mumbled, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he stared down at the rooftop, rubbing the back of his head and looking awkward. “I mean…I thought you were mad at me.”

This brought Ladybug up short, and her frown deepened.

“Why would I be mad at you?”

Chat glanced up at her, giving a slight smile and half a shrug.

“Well, you know. We had agreed to keep our identities a secret, originally. But now, thanks to me…the cat’s kind of out of the bag.”

He paused; he seemed like he was waiting for her to react to the pun. Ladybug just stared at him, and he sighed.

“Listen, Ladybug—I’m sorry. I’m sorry about this whole mess. If I had been paying more attention, Volpina wouldn’t have nabbed me, and you wouldn’t have had to come to rescue me—” He broke off in a huff, rubbing the back of his head again. “I just made a mess of everything. So, if you’re upset with me—”

Oh, _what_ nonsense was he spouting?

Ladybug huffed, and she stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Chat took a half-step back, looking suddenly skittish, as if he expected her to hit him. Ladybug disregarded that, sliding her arms around him and giving a soft sigh when she heard his heartbeat in her ear, perhaps a little faster than it should be, but strong and steady nonetheless.

Chat— _Adrien_ —was okay. That was what was important. Volpina hadn’t managed to harm him, so, for the moment, he was fine. Thank goodness.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she said softly. It was a little embarrassing, she realized after a moment—it was no longer just Chat she was hugging, but Adrien as well. Her nerves threatened to get the better of her, and she almost pulled back, but then strong arms slid around her, securing her in place against Chat as he hugged her back.

“Thank you for coming for me, Buginette,” he replied, a hand brushing against her hair. The tender gesture, while somewhat expected of her partner, was twice as embarrassing now that she knew who was under the mask, and she felt her face heat up. Oh boy…this was going to take some getting used to…

Ladybug pulled back, staring up at Chat. He stared back, his cat’s eyes gleaming, his pupils blown wide. Ladybug marveled at that; this wasn’t the first time she had seen his pupils so wide, but she still wondered what that meant. Was it just a cat thing?

“Listen,” he began, and Ladybug blinked, brought out of her own thoughts. “I don’t expect you to tell me who you are just because you know who I am. I know you want to keep your identity a secret, and I’ll respect that. Promise.”

Ladybug sighed in relief. She hadn’t even been thinking about that at the moment, but the fact that Chat wanted to make this clear to her before she even said anything meant more to her than she could properly express. …Or…could she…?

Ladybug didn’t know whether it was because she currently had a mask hiding her identity, or whether it was because she always felt bolder while she was Ladybug, but a sudden brashness seized her, and refused to let her go until she had leaned forward and pressed her lips…

…Against Chat’s nose. Whoops.

It was a little higher than she intended, but when she pulled back, it was with high amusement that she watched Chat blink in astonishment, his mouth hanging open slightly, as if he couldn’t believe what had just occurred. Ladybug wanted to laugh and tease him, but when she remembered that they didn’t exactly have time for this, she sobered and stepped away, slipping out of his grasp.

“Volpina,” she reminded him gravely, watching as Chat blinked again, coming back to life, his expression darkening.

“Volpina,” he agreed, and Ladybug was relieved that at least _acknowledging_ his hidden identity was enough to snap him back into action. She sent out her yo-yo to the next rooftop and swung through the air, knowing without looking that Chat would never be far behind. Even when he himself had been bound and gagged for who knows how long, he never kept her waiting long…

And that’s when Ladybug realized: Adrien had revealed himself to return to her side, to make it clear that, just as she would always come for him, he would always be there for her in return. That’s how much she seemed to mean to him.

Ladybug felt her face flare up again, and was more than grateful that she was currently in front of Chat Noir, so he couldn’t see her blushing.

He was more than sweet, her partner/crush. Ladybug was going to have to figure out a way to make this up to him.

Hmm…perhaps, if he chose to visit her later that night for their weekly visit with croissants and hot chocolate, Marinette would decide to reveal a secret of her own…


	5. Four Corners, Straight Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, the prompt that got away from me. XP It ended up being 37 pages...or a little over 14K words, for those of you who only speak word count. XP
> 
> Anyway, this is "Four Corners, Straight Line", written for SiderealSandman~ It has elements of nearly all the corners of the Love Square (there's, maybe, a SECOND of Ladrien, LMAO), but MariChat dominates the majority of it. It was super fun to write, even if I did let it get wildly away from me. XP
> 
> Enjoy! <3
> 
> ~Reyna

            “How did you know?”

            Chat Noir’s eyes flickered over to Marinette, who leaned against the balcony railing next to him, her gaze focused on the Parisian skyline. The moonlight complimented her, he couldn’t help but note; she was pale, her skin glowing, as if it was made up of starlight itself. She was lovely, wasn’t she?

            It was hard to remember, exactly, when these late night hangouts between them became commonplace. He had just been roaming around one night, as he tended to do when he was restless, when he had spotted her out on her balcony, gazing into the night, with something that smelled _wonderful_ with her. Turned out they were freshly baked croissants, and Chat couldn’t stop himself from dropping in on her, though he regretted it almost immediately when she screamed in surprise and nearly hit him with the tray of croissants, sending them flying.

            The rest, one might say, was history.

            Chat had discovered that Marinette was a joy to be around—in school, she was always quiet and reserved with him, which made him nervous. She was so open and free with everyone else, and it seemed to be only around him that she would clam up and shut herself away. It made him sad—what was it about him that caused that change? What was it about _Adrien_ that caused Marinette to stop being her perfectly lovely self?

            Whatever it was, she didn’t seem to have a problem when it was Chat she was hanging out with. She was funny, honest, kind, and she chatted with him easily, even sometimes returning his puns with a zinger of her own, much to his surprised delight. If she and Ladybug ever met, he was certain that they’d get along famously.

            “Know what, Princess?”

            Marinette’s gaze flickered to him and away so fast that Chat almost thought it was just a trick of the light. And…was she blushing?

            “…How did you know you were in love with Ladybug?” She clarified her question. Now it was Chat’s turn to blush and hastily look away from her.

            “Oh. Uh…”

            “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me,” Marinette rushed to assure him; his gaze returned to her, and she looked chagrined. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be so nosy. You know what, just forget it—”

            “No, no, it’s okay, I don’t mind!” Chat protested, waving his hands hurriedly and plastering a hasty smile onto his face. “It’s fine! I understand, really. You wouldn’t _believe_ how many ‘curiosity’ jokes I’ve had to put up with since I took this job…”

            He paused, waiting for Marinette to laugh. The best she could do was a small smile, but Chat took it, smiling a bit bigger, hoping that would put her at ease.

            “Well…I didn’t _know_ -know until the second time we worked together…do you remember Stoneheart?”

            Marinette frowned.

            “Yeah, I remember Stoneheart,” she said softly, jostling her mug so that the little bit of hot chocolate left within sloshed around. “He was the first akuma Paris ever saw...hard to believe it’s been three years since then.”

            “Yeah,” Chat agreed, briefly getting caught up in his own marveling at that fact—three years _already?_ —before he remembered he was having a conversation. He cleared his throat and continued. “Not many people know this—and this is for your ears only, Princess, because I trust you won’t spread this around—but Ladybug was having doubts the day we were trying to stop Stoneheart for the second time. We screwed up the first time with that, and the police weren’t helping matters…”

            Chat frowned to himself; that day still chafed. If he tried to be objective, he supposed he could excuse Officer Raincomprix for being scared—hell, they all were. This was a threat Paris had never seen before, and none of them knew how or _why_ it had come to be…that was, until Hawk Moth announced himself…

            “But then that _really_ creepy akuma projection of Hawk Moth showed up and started making demands and…I don’t know. It was like a switch flipped, and suddenly, Ladybug was all sass, no waiting. She purified all those akumas within _seconds_ , and it was _amazing._ Miraculous, you might say,” he joked with a wink, drawing a giggle from Marinette. Good—he liked it better when she laughed.

            “And then she made that promise to protect Paris…and I guess that was when I realized it. I was gone. No, I was _hers._ Still am.”

            Taking a deep breath, a red-faced Chat turned, making himself meet those blue eyes of Marinette’s…eyes that were so strangely familiar…well, they _had_ been friends for three years and counting now, but still…

            “What about you?” He asked, watching her face carefully as pink began to blossom in her cheeks. “How did you know you were in love with _your_ somebody? Are you ever going to tell me this guy’s name, by the way?”

            Marinette dropped her gaze from his, closing her eyes for a moment.

            “I’ll tell you his name when you tell Ladybug that you’re in love with her.”

            “Ah. Touché, Princess.” Chat scooted closer, nudging her. “So?”

            Marinette sighed, brushing her dark hair behind her ear. This drew Chat’s attention to her earrings, which were surprisingly simple, given that she wanted to be a fashion designer. Hmm…come to think of it, he didn’t think he ever saw her wearing any other pair of earrings in his three years of knowing her…but then again, he could have just missed it or something…

            “…It was raining that day,” Marinette began, so softly that Chat hastily leaned over to hear her better. “And I didn’t have an umbrella.”

            Chat frowned. Yikes, that had to be no fun. She didn’t have to walk all the way home in the rain, did she?

            “I was going to wait, see if it would let up…but then _he_ showed up.”

            “‘He’ being your somebody?” Chat wanted to check. Marinette smiled, something about it a little awkward.

            “Well, not at the time. I was…kind of mad at him.”

            Chat blinked.

            “Mad at him? Oh no, what _claw_ ful thing did he do to make someone as sweet as you angry?”

            Marinette sighed and rolled her eyes at his _paw_ some cat pun, but she couldn’t fool Chat—there was a telltale smile playing at the corners of her lips, even as she tried to stifle it. She was adorable…er, in a strictly platonic sense, of course…

            “Actually, it turned out it wasn’t something he had done.” Marinette frowned, her dark brows furrowing as she gazed out at the beautiful night sky, lost in thought. “He was covering for somebody—a friend. I just happened to walk in at the wrong moment, and I made the wrong assumption. But, I mean,” she growled, abruptly fierce, “it wasn’t like I _was_ wrong—it _was_ something she did, but he hadn’t been playing along like I thought. But because they were friends, I automatically assumed he was just like her, when it wasn’t true at all, and…”

            Marinette sighed, raising a hand to rub the side of her temple.

            “Anyway, it was this huge misunderstanding, so when he said hi to me, I was determined to ignore him. But then…”

            Marinette paused, which Chat was grateful for, because his mind was suddenly _whirling._

            This…this sounded _way_ too familiar. In the three years that he had known Marinette, he only knew of _one_ incident that sounded remotely like this, and he knew the details pretty damn well, considering…but wait…no, it _couldn’t_ be…

            “But then?” He prompted, his voice unintentionally hushed. Marinette glanced at him, and he wasn’t sure exactly, but it seemed like something in his expression embarrassed her; her cheeks glowed red, and she looked away from him again.

            “…But then…he apologized,” she said, slowly turning her mug in her grasp, for something to do with her hands, Chat supposed. He couldn’t really speculate on it further than that, however—her words were too vital at the moment. “He told me he was telling the truth—he wasn’t a part of Chloe’s prank after all.”

            Oh god, she said Chloe, _she said Chloe_ , was this what he thought it was, was he dreaming right now, was there actually a _chance_ that Marinette’s ‘somebody’ was—was—

            “…He was a new student, too,” Marinette added, interrupting Chat’s inner panic. She was still looking away from him, the moonlight reflected in her eyes as she lifted her mug to drain it of the last of her hot chocolate. “And he had never been to public school before…he had never had any friends before, either. Well, aside from Chloe…but I don’t personally think she should count.”

            Chat choked on a yelp of awkward laughter. When Marinette gave him a strange look, he coughed, apologizing quietly. He couldn’t help it, though. It was taking every ounce of his self-control not to shoot to his feet and pace around Marinette’s balcony, or run laps around Paris, _anything_ to get rid of this sudden surge of energy that was making him jittery, fidgeting next to her as he waited, with bated breath, for her to finish her story and confirm, with her own words, that she really _did_ have feelings for who Chat thought she had feelings for—

            “And then he gave me his umbrella,” Marinette sighed, a positively _dreamy_ look crossing her face as she smiled into the distance. “It was really sweet…I mean, he had a car waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, but still, it was a nice gesture. And I still have that umbrella.”

            She still had it?

            It had been three years, but…she had kept his umbrella…?

            Chat didn’t know what to say.

            What _could_ he say, exactly? What did one say when one found out, quite by accident, that one of their classmates—one of their _friends_ —might be in love with them?

            And all over an _umbrella?_

            Marinette’s gaze snapped to him, and she was abruptly scowling. Too late, Chat realized that he had uttered his incredulous question aloud.

            “Uh…I didn’t mean—”

            “It’s not about the _umbrella,_ ” Marinette huffed, placing her empty mug on the nearby table before turning to him with her arms folded firmly across her chest, the fire of challenge blazing in those bluebell eyes of hers. “It’s about _way_ more than the umbrella! It was his kindness and his honesty that made me see him for who he is! Okay, so I have all of his fan magazines, but I don’t really care about the modeling or the fame or the fortune—none of that is important! It’s his sweetness that I love, that quiet care he takes when he’s around his friends. And when he laughs, there’s so much _joy_ there, like he’s so happy just to be there with you, even if you’re talking about nothing at all. The umbrella isn’t the point, Chat—it’s what the umbrella _represents_ : a kind, shy boy who didn’t really know how to befriend anyone, but was willing to try and right a wrong anyway! _That’s_ why I love Adrien!”

            Marinette paused, blinked, and went completely red, realizing too late that she had said too much.

            ‘Adrien’.

            Marinette was in love with _Adrien_.

            With _him!_

            She just confirmed it, just now! She was somehow in love with him, because of all those really embarrassing reasons she just stated!

            Chat could fall off this balcony railing and die right now, and he wouldn’t have even noticed.

            “…Uh,” he spluttered, just realizing that he _really_ should say something right now…but what? What could he possibly say right now that wouldn’t sound unbearably stupid?!

            Marinette turned away from him, covering her face with her hands.

            “Oh nooo,” she groaned through her fingers, sinking down into a crouch, as if she wanted to disappear through the floor completely. “I didn’t mean to tell you all that. Oh god, Chat, _please_ pretend you didn’t hear all that. Claim temporary deafness or something, I don’t care! Just say that you didn’t hear all the embarrassing stuff I just said!”

            “…But I _can’t_ ,” Chat said, quite helplessly, as he stared down at the balled-up, embarrassed form of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

            It wasn’t something he could just brush off, like it never even happened. Even if he _tried,_ he was quite sure it wouldn’t be successful. He couldn’t just simply _forget_ that Marinette had confessed to being in love with him…that sweet, charming, unbelievably amazing Marinette, was…

            Carefully, Chat climbed down from the railing, because he didn’t trust his balance at the moment. He sank down next to Marinette, who still had her face covered—oh no, he prayed she wasn’t crying, he wouldn’t be able to do anything at all if she was crying. Haltingly, hesitantly, he stretched out an arm, resting a hand on her shoulder.

            “…I had no idea,” he murmured to her, squeezing her shoulder as, slowly, confusion and disbelief began to fade…to be replaced by wonder…and just a little bit of trepidation. “I’m sorry.”

            Marinette let out a long, _long_ sigh, finally removing her hands from her face. It was still as red as red could be, but it was also tear-free, a small mercy Chat was thankful for. He merely watched her as she sat up a little, looking up at him with a slight frown on her face, her freckled nose wrinkling. She was _so_ adorable…how had Chat never realized until now?

            “Why are you sorry?” She asked him, tilting her head to the side as she looked at him. “It’s not like there’s any way you’d know...”

            …Huh. That was true, wasn’t it? Even if he wasn’t Chat Noir right now, there was no way he could have known about this. Because she had never said…but then…should he have _seen_ it? He and Marinette were thrown together more often than not, simply because their best friends were dating each other, but even so, had Adrien never seen this simply because he hadn’t been paying attention?

            Wait…was _this_ why Marinette acted so strangely around him? Because she was in _love_ with him? Did this mystery _finally_ have an answer??

            “Chat?” Marinette asked, and Chat blinked himself back into the moment to find her still frowning at him, this time in concern. “Are you okay?”

            “Fine!” Chat announced heartily, quickly removing his hand from Marinette’s shoulder and raising them for reasons he was completely unsure of as he shot to his feet. “I’m perfect, actually! Just, you know…I feel bad for embarrassing you, and everything…”

            “It’s okay,” Marinette sighed, a small smile tugging at her lips as she straightened up as well, folding her arms around herself. “It’s not like you _made_ me tell you all this stuff…but, um, if you could keep it to yourself, I’d appreciate it. I know you probably don’t know my Adrien personally, but still…”

            “Oh, sure,” Chat agreed, still in that strange, hearty voice of his, making a show of drawing an invisible zipper across his lips. “Your secret’s safe with me! Ahahaha…”

            Marinette raised an eyebrow at him, but after a moment, seemed to choose to let it go.

            “Thanks,” she said with a smile that _melted_ Chat, seriously, how had he never before realized how cute she was—

            Abruptly, a familiar spotted Lady popped into his mind, and Chat stifled his sigh.

            Right. It…it didn’t matter, did it? Not that Marinette’s feelings weren’t important, no—Chat was _beyond_ flattered—but…what could he do about them, when his heart already belonged to someone else?

            “Um…so…since you told me y-your somebody’s name…I guess I have to confess to Ladybug now, don’t I? Hahaha…”

            Somehow, Marinette’s face managed to turn impossibly redder.

            “Oh, you don’t have to!” She said hastily, waving her hands hurriedly with a look of panic crossing her face. “A-after all, I told you by accident! I-it’s not like you’re _obligated_ or anything—”

            “But it’s not fair, right?” Chat pointed out, resisting the urge to chew his own bottom lip as Marinette bit into hers. “I mean, you _did_ say—”

            “I know what I said, but that doesn’t mean—”

            “—You told me who you like so—”

            “—Chat, I really don’t think—”

            An abrupt beeping interrupted them. Chat looked down at his hand and cursed—his ring was losing power, which meant Plagg was getting tired, which meant his transformation was about to break. In other words, it was time to go.

            “Well…I should really turn in for the night. You should too, Princess,” said Chat, trying for a devil-may-care smile as he climbed onto the railing of her balcony again, poised to flee. “And, uh, don’t worry—this night stays between us, okay?”

            “Chat,” Marinette called, a hand reaching out to clasp his wrist. Chat froze under her touch, feeling his eyes widen as he looked down at her.

            She really _was_ beautiful in the moonlight—it bleached her skin, but he was still able to make out those freckles sprinkled across her nose, her dark hair took on a bright sheen that showcased just how silky it looked, and her eyes seemed to absorb the moonlight and reflect the light, making them glow a lovely, almost unearthly blue…

            …Oh boy. This…this was dangerous, wasn’t it?

            ‘ _Ladybug, Ladybug, I’m in love with Ladybug,_ ’ Chat chanted to himself, swallowing. He could not do this, he could not afford to find Marinette any more lovely or fascinating than he already did—that would just make his life _way_ more complicated than it already was, and he simply did not need this right now. So as soon as she let him go…

            Either Marinette could read minds or Chat had accidentally uttered his thoughts out loud again—a second later, she relinquished her hold on his wrist. But she still stared at him with those beautiful blue eyes, looking awfully anxious about something…

            “…What if she doesn’t say it back?” She asked him in a voice so small that Chat wondered just how willing she was to actually ask the question. “Aren’t you…worried about that? If…if Ladybug doesn’t love you back…won’t it hurt?”

            Chat stared down at Marinette, at a temporary loss for words. True, he knew it was likely that Ladybug didn’t feel the same way about him, if her dodging his advances for three years was any indication. And true, her rejecting him would hurt a _lot._

            But wasn’t it worse to be left wondering for so long?

            Wouldn’t it be better for Chat to finally gain some closure, instead of constantly keeping this precarious balance between him and his partner, who also happened to be the love of his life?

            Just how long could Chat stand this before he couldn’t take any more sleepless nights, wishing, wanting, yearning…?

            “…Would you rather never know?” Chat asked softly as he watched Marinette’s face, took in the furrow of her brows and the twist of her lips as she peered up at him. “You’ve been in love with Adrien for three years, Marinette. Would you really rather not know just what he would say if you confessed?”

            Marinette blushed.

            “I-it’s not like I’ve never tried to tell him,” she protested feebly, looking away from Chat and folding her arms again. “For his fifteenth birthday, I gave him a scarf I made…but, uh, that didn’t pan out…and that Valentine’s Day, I sent him a card…but forgot to sign it…”

            Marinette sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

            “It’s complicated, okay?”

            Chat said nothing; he was too busy trying to process those two new revelations. A scarf…did she mean _his_ scarf? His blue one, the one from his father? Then…that wasn’t a gift from his father after all, but a gift from Marinette?? Why hadn’t she told him?! And _which_ Valentine’s Day card?! He had gotten so many, but he didn’t remember Marinette’s being on any of them, he _definitely_ would have remembered that…but if she hadn’t signed it—

            Another beep interrupted Chat’s thought process, and he shook his head. Now was not the time.

            “I have to go, Marinette,” he said, stealing one last look at her before he crouched, ready to spring onto the roof and race his way home so he could sit down and _think_ for the rest of the night. “Thanks for the snacks. I’ll see you later.”

            “Oh…okay. Good night, Chat.”

            There was something in her voice that made Chat want to turn around and look at her, something that tugged at his soul, that commanded him to stay there with her and reveal himself immediately—

            He didn’t. Instead, he ran. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him—which was pretty damn fast, since they were so long and since he exercised almost daily with all the akuma attacks that occurred in Paris. Within what felt like seconds, he was dropping back into the open window of his bedroom, just in time for his transformation to dispel.

            “I do _not_ approve of all these late-night visits to your girlfriend’s house, Adrien!” Plagg protested immediately, as he always did when they got back from Marinette’s place. And usually, Adrien immediately denied that Marinette was anything like a girlfriend, and that she was just a really good friend he was trying to get to know better, because she was strangely reserved whenever he was around her as Adrien…

            But tonight, Adrien simply did not have the energy to have this argument.

            Instead, he stumbled over to his bed and sank down onto the edge, in a stupor.

            Marinette was in love with him. With _him._

            Somehow, all his bumbling awkwardness in trying to make friends had drawn her to him after their first misunderstanding, and…she _loved_ him.

            “She loves me,” Adrien breathed, as if saying the words out loud would help him make them more real. He stared at his floor, lost in this revelation…until a pair of narrow green eyes invaded his vision.

            “Oh, what’s this? We’ve turned into a little heartbreaker, haven’t we?”

            “Yeah, right,” Adrien huffed, glancing away from Plagg as he rubbed the back of his neck. Him, a heartbreaker? Psh.

…Well, it was true that he _had_ had to turn a few girls down over the course of his time in public school, but that didn’t qualify him as a _heartbreaker…_ did it?

            Plagg floated into his line of sight again, tail flicking lazily through the air as he gave Adrien a careless stare.

            “So? One of your friends just confessed to you. What are you gonna do about it, kid?”

            “…I don’t know,” Adrien admitted, letting his gaze fall to the floor again. What _could_ he do about it? How could he turn down someone who was so sweet, so amazing, and so _loved_ that anyone in the _world_ would be lucky to be the object of her affection? It was Marinette. _Marinette._ How could he possibly break her heart like that?

            ‘ _But I’m in love with_ Ladybug,’ Adrien reminded himself once again, as the love of _his_ life appeared in his mind’s eye, pigtailed dark hair, red and black spotted super suit, her sassy smirk in place as she returned his quips with one of her own—no one was better at banter than she was—bluebell eyes that burned fiercely, with a fire so hot it threatened to consume Adrien, though he couldn’t find it in himself to care…

            “You’re thinking about Ladybug again, aren’t you?” Plagg drawled, once again invading Adrien’s vision with his flat, unimpressed gaze. “I can tell by that dopey look on your face.”

Plagg huffed as Adrien worked to fix his expression. “I still don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with her. She’s just a girl, Adrien.”

            “She’s _more_ than that,” Adrien insisted, though he was sick to death over having this argument with Plagg. “She’s _amazing._ She’s smart, and pretty, and funny, and brave—”

            “Yeah, yeah, and in your wrong opinion, she smells better than cheese.” Plagg gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “You _do_ realize that a lot of _other_ girls have all those traits, too?”

            “Not like Ladybug,” Adrien insisted with a firm shake of his blonde head. “She’s different.”

            “Why? Because she goes around fighting akuma with you?” Plagg flipped upside down, still staring dispassionately at Adrien. It was kind of remarkable how very like a cat he was. “What if you strip that mask away, Adrien? What do you think she’d be like then?”

            “Just because she wears a mask doesn’t mean she’d become a different person,” Adrien huffed, ignoring that doubting look on Plagg’s tiny face. “She’d still be as smart, and as pretty, and as funny—”

            “So you’re saying she’d be Marinette,” Plagg cut in, smirking when Adrien sputtered in surprise, biting his tongue by accident.

            “N-no!” Adrien protested, wincing and speaking carefully to avoid further abusing his poor tongue. “That’s not what I’m saying at all!! Ladybug and Marinette—they’re two _totally_ different people!!”

            Plagg stared at him for a long minute…and then he gave a huff.

            “You really _are_ blind,” he remarked cryptically, ignoring the quizzical look Adrien gave him as he glided away, burying himself in the bottom drawer of Adrien’s desk, where a stash of camembert was hidden away for him to keep him quiet during the night. Adrien stared after him, frowning in the darkness of his bedroom.

            What did Plagg mean, he was blind? Just because Marinette and Ladybug shared some similarities…

            …Well…now that Adrien was thinking on it…they shared a _lot_ of similarities, didn’t they? And not just personality-wise—they kind of even _looked_ similar to each other, didn’t they? They were both pale, with dark hair and blue eyes…and Marinette used to wear her hair in pigtails all the time when they were younger…but that was just coincidence, wasn’t it? There were no doubt a _lot_ of girls in Paris who had dark hair and blue eyes; just because he happened to know one personally didn’t _mean_ anything. Plagg was just trying to mess with him, as usual.

            Adrien huffed and dragged himself off his bed, ready for a shower before he went to sleep. He tried not to think about the fact that he would see Marinette tomorrow, and how he would act around her, now knowing what he knew…but he failed. All he did was think about her, even a couple hours later while he was lying in bed, staring blankly up at his ceiling.

            He didn’t want to see her. If he saw her, then he would think about how she felt about him, and then he would no doubt say something stupid that would hurt her. And he didn’t want to do that, so he couldn’t face her tomorrow…

            But he couldn’t avoid her _forever_ either, because that would hurt her, too. Ugh, what a mess—just what was Adrien supposed to do about this? How could he be expected to act _normal_ around her now, knowing that she harbored feelings for him?

            Were Adrien’s only two options really either to break Marinette’s heart, or to just ignore her feelings altogether?

            Adrien groaned and rolled onto his stomach, hoping that mashing his face into his pillows would black out the vision of Marinette from his sight.

            It didn’t.

            This was going to be a long night.

 

* * *

 

Why? Why first thing in the morning? Why?!

Didn’t Hawk Moth care that she had a _huge_ test she needed to take in an hour?!

“No, of course not, because he’s _evil!_ ” Ladybug groused as she ducked another attack from the akuma—a strange, penguin-like thing that looked like a doll held together with big stitches that kept throwing an endless supply of knives, bombs, and other dangerous assortment of weapons. Seriously, was that bag it was wearing just a bottomless pit of weapons?! And _where_ was Chat when she needed him?!

“Good morning, My Lady,” said a sudden, familiar voice to her left, and Ladybug sighed in relief as Chat Noir slid in next to her, behind the car she was using as coverage. “I must say, seeing you first thing in the morning has brightened my day considerably.”

“Not now, Chat,” Ladybug shushed him with a preemptive finger to his nose as he began to lean in. “We kind of have a situation here?”

“Say no more,” Chat replied, smirking his feline smirk as he carefully peeked his head around the car. “It’s nothing the two of us couldn’t ha—dude, is that a _prinny?!_ ”

“A what?”

“This is bad,” Chat said, hurriedly ducking down just in time for a knife to go whizzing by, missing his head by mere centimeters. His cat’s eyes wide, Chat turned back to Ladybug, his naked panic causing her some concern. “Whatever you do, _don’t_ throw it.”

“I wasn’t going to?”

“Good.” Ladybug and Chat cringed simultaneously as an explosion sounded just behind their cover—that akuma’s aim was getting better. That was not good. “Got a Lucky Charm that might get us out of this?”

“I might,” Ladybug sighed, gripping her yo-yo and pulling the wire taut. “Think you can distract it for a few seconds while I do this?”

“Of course. But, uh, please be quick, My Lady.” As Chat slunk around the car and began being annoying in order to distract the akuma (he shouted something about someone named ‘Etna’ or something, which _really_ got under the akuma’s skin, er, feathers?), Ladybug went to work, throwing her yo-yo into the air and shouting the chant:

“Lucky Charm!”

Something red with black spots popped out of her charm, fluttering down into Ladybug’s hands. She stared at it for a few good seconds before she sighed.

“A scarf? Really? What am I supposed to do with—”

There was a pained yowl, and Ladybug’s head snapped up: the akuma, somehow, had thrown a series of knives that had pinned Chat Noir to a nearby building. The akuma’s hand—flipper?—was holding another knife, and it appeared to be taking careful aim…

“Oh no you don’t!” Ladybug shrieked, sending out her yo-yo to wrap around the akuma’s body. She gave a huge tug, yanking it backwards from Chat—

“Ladybug, no!!” Chat cried out, wriggling against his very sharp restraints, his face alarmed. “If it hits anything, it’ll explode!”

“What?!”

Too late—the akuma had already been sent flying. But Ladybug was nothing if not a quick thinker: glancing around, she spotted the two lamp posts the akuma would pass in between before it ran headlong into a tea shop named Red Moon—boy, those wings on its back were just useless, weren’t they? Clutching the scarf in her hands, Ladybug sped her way over to the lamp posts, tossing the scarf out to wrap around the post furthest from her. There was no time to secure it, and so she clung to the other end, hoping the akuma’s trajectory would be slowed even the _slightest_ bit—

The akuma flew into the scarf, and it stretched, giving way under the force of the akuma’s trajectory. The other end of the scarf hadn’t been tied, and so it came away from the lamp post, leaving only Ladybug clinging to the other end. She yelped as she was suddenly yanked forward, off her feet, and belly-flopped onto the concrete street. That wince blended into another as the akuma—Chat called it a prinny?—made contact with the ground—

But it didn’t explode. Instead, it bounced harmlessly off the pavement a couple times, blinking those weird, soulless-looking eyes a couple times. Ladybug stayed where she was, bracing herself in case it was meant to be a delayed explosion, but nothing. The prinny akuma just sat there, flippers clutching at the red and black-spotted scarf around its neck. Ladybug thought she heard a weird sound issue from it—something about a “dude”, but it was said strangely, drawing out the ‘u’ sound too long—before she remembered Chat’s precarious situation. As much as she wanted to run right to him, she knew that the problem would be solved much more efficiently if she purified the akuma now.

Jumping to her feet, Ladybug carefully toed her way to the prinny akuma, watching warily for any hint that it was about to explode. When it didn’t, she snatched the bag from it, for it was the only thing on it other than her Lucky Charm scarf, and ripped it in half. A dark CD burst out from the bag, and Ladybug stomped on it, cracking it in two. The akuma fluttered out, Ladybug caught and purified it, tossed her Lucky Charm scarf into the air, and then bam, Paris was righted once again.

Ladybug sighed in relief when Chat immediately returned to her side, cringing as he rubbed one of his shoulders, as if it was sore.

“Are you all right?” She asked, a hand on his shoulder as she checked him over, looking for cuts that might have been missed somehow by her restorative powers. Chat gave her a smile, covering her hand with his.

“Don’t fret, My Lady: no knives nor bombs—not even hot coals—could keep me from your side.”

Ladybug smiled helplessly. Her kitty was so ridiculous.

“Ugh…”

Suddenly remembering that they weren’t alone, Ladybug whirled around, crouching down next to the grown man that had appeared in the akuma’s place, looking dazed.

“Are you all right, sir?”

“What?” Said the man in English, squinting his eyes at the pair of them. “Uh, I don’t speak—oh, wait, uh, how do you say it in French? Uh, _parlez-vous Anglais?_ ” 

“Oh, yes,” Ladybug replied in English, suddenly feeling nervous; she had never practiced her English with a native speaker before. Time to see if all those classes would pay off… “Um, are you okay?”

“I…think so? I don’t know what happened…the last thing I remember is holding the CD of one of my favorite games—”

“Disgaea: Hour of Darkness?” Chat suddenly piped up; Ladybug glanced over to find him leaning over them, looking very excited. The man’s dark eyes lit up.

“Yes! I wanted to relax after a long day of sightseeing, but my asshole cat must’ve gotten into my game bag, because when I came back…”

“Oh…then here,” Ladybug said, carefully picking up the CD from where it landed and passing it over to the man. “Try and make sure your things are locked better so your cat doesn’t get to them.”

“Hey…it’s fixed!” The man frowned, glancing in between Ladybug and Chat Noir, as if he expected one of them to announce that they were a wizard. “…How did you…?”

“Magic,” Chat joked with a wink. The man glanced between them again, looking uncertain.

“Well…okay…” He stood up carefully, towering over Ladybug, though he was about Chat’s height. “I should, uh, get back to my hotel…just have to find it from here…”

“If you know the name, we can take you,” Chat volunteered.

“Quickly,” Ladybug added, as her earrings gave a warning beep.

It took the man a minute or two to remember the name of the hotel he was staying at, and on his escort back, he and Chat spoke at length about this Disgaea game Chat mentioned earlier. Ladybug was impressed by the level of Chat’s English, for he and the man chatted easily and enthusiastically, and when they left, the akumatized tourist looked a lot more cheerful. Hmm…maybe Ladybug would have to look up this Disgaea game in her spare time…

“ _Bién joué_ ,” she and Chat recited, perhaps a little late, as they bumped their fists together. Chat’s ring gave a beep, and Ladybug watched him scowl as another toe bean of power disappeared from his ring. Her earrings echoed his ring, and she took a step back.

“I should go—”

“Ladybug, wait,” Chat said, suddenly reaching out and clasping her wrist, as if he was afraid she’d disappear if he dared to blink. He let go quickly once he seemed to realize what he was doing, and then rubbed the back of his head, looking supremely uncomfortable. “I…there’s something I have to tell you.”

Ladybug stared at him, a sudden lead weight plunging into the pit of her stomach.

_Oh no_. This wasn’t what she thought it was, was it? He wasn’t _seriously_ going to do this now just because of her stupid slip last night, was he?

“Oh…Chat, I don’t think we have time—”

“It’ll only take a second,” Chat assured her, turning the full force of his kitten eyes onto her, much to her chagrin. “Please, Ladybug?”

Ladybug paused, rapidly searching through her brain for some excuse, _any_ excuse that would get her out of this conversation that she really, _really_ did not want to have—

_“…Would you rather never know? You’ve been in love with Adrien for three years, Marinette. Would you really rather not know just what he would say if you confessed?”_

…That’s right. Chat had been in love with her for three years. He didn’t know that Ladybug knew, of course, because he didn’t know that _Marinette_ was Ladybug, but still, if last night’s conversation was any indication…it seemed that Chat was tired of wondering.

And, though Ladybug did not feel the same way about him, he was still her partner. Wasn’t she obligated to hear him out, at least? Wouldn’t it be better for the both of them to finally put this unspoken thing between them to rest?

“…All right,” Ladybug conceded, steeling herself as Chat’s face lit up. God, she hoped he didn’t take this rejection too hard…love or not, Ladybug still needed her partner.

“Okay. All right. Ahem. Um…” Chat glanced around, as if searching for inspiration. Ladybug watched as his nose wrinkled slightly, and he gave a sigh. “I was actually hoping for a more romantic setting—”

“Chat—”

“But there isn’t time, I know,” Chat agreed, clearing his throat uncomfortably as his face flushed red. “Right, well, I guess I’ll just…okay. Here goes…”

Chat took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Ladybug watched him, her heart throbbing painfully. He looked so nervous…oh god, she couldn’t do this, she couldn’t break his heart. But at the same time, he was _Chat._ Chat Noir, her partner in supernatural crime-fighting for three years. She was so very fond of him…but she wasn’t in love with him. And it would be a disservice to him to pretend that she was. So even though she didn’t want to, even though the thought of hurting him killed her—

“So…I know I haven’t exactly made it a secret, how much I admire you,” Chat began, looking… _shy._ Ladybug had never seen him look shy over _anything_ , and she couldn’t believe that she was seeing it now. It was strange…with that expression, he kind of looked like… “And I know you’re probably used to hearing it, not just from me, but from all of Paris itself. The things you do daily, and without any fear whatsoever—you’re amazing, Ladybug.”

‘Without fear’? Now that wasn’t true—Ladybug was scared of a _lot_ of things. Well, _Marinette_ was scared of a lot of things that she tried not to let show as Ladybug, but still—

“Please, let me finish,” Chat pleaded, and Ladybug became aware that her mouth was open to interrupt. As she shut it, Chat took another deep breath before continuing. “I knew you were amazing from the moment I met you. And I…I just wanted you to know…”

In his hesitation, there were more insistent beeps from both of their Miraculous. As Ladybug put a worried hand to her earrings, the urgency of the situation seemed to spur Chat into finally saying what was on his mind—

“I love you, Ladybug.”

Ladybug stared at him, at the tender, hopeful look in those cat’s eyes of his as he laid his heart bare before her…positioned just right for the knife she would have to plunge into it.

“Chat…thank you,” Ladybug said, smiling a little at him. And oh god, his whole face lit up, and he was suddenly _glowing_ with happiness. It hurt Ladybug to look at him, knowing she’d have to tear that expression from him with her next words. It was cowardly, but she squeezed her eyes shut, and forced the ugly, soul-shattering words out of her mouth:

“…But I’m in love with someone else.”

There was a small intake of breath. Just a small one. It was almost like she had just told him a mild secret, like the secret ingredient to her father’s croissants, or something stupid like that. With her eyes closed, Ladybug could pretend that she hadn’t just stomped the heart of her partner into pieces, the way she might with a possessed item.

The seconds passed, but there was no sound from Chat. Ladybug couldn’t look. She couldn’t make herself look at him, his face drained of happiness, replaced by devastation. It might be a bit egotistical of her to assume that she had just ruined his whole day, but considering she knew just how much he was in love with her, thanks to their late night conversations on the balcony above her room…

“…Oh.”

The soft utterance hurt Ladybug. She finally made herself open her eyes to look at him, but now he was looking away, off to the side, his eyes downcast, cat ears flat against his head.

“Chat,” she began softly, stepping forward, a hand outstretched before she remembered herself, and dropped it back to her side. “Chat, I’m—”

“No no, don’t apologize,” Chat said hurriedly; he turned to look at her, and the sadness in his gaze hurt Ladybug more. Still, he tried to smile. “I…I guess it was kind of a given, that someone like you would have someone special to you already…I’m sorry for bothering you with this, really. I didn’t mean to cause you trouble.”

“You didn’t—”

“I should go,” Chat talked over her, turning away, his shoulders slumped. “I’ll see you later, Ladybug.”

And, before Ladybug could finish wishing for a new restorative power that would fix this situation somehow, Chat was bounding away. Ladybug stared after him, something hollow aching inside her, as if Chat had torn out a chunk of her and taken it with him. This was awful. Absolutely terrible.

Her Miraculous gave four chirps, signaling that she had only a minute before her transformation broke. Working to get herself together, Ladybug sent out her yo-yo and swung her way to her _lyceé_ , carefully concealing herself behind the building, obscured by bushes she often used when she needed to transform or de-transform in a hurry. She still had about thirty seconds before her transformation reverted…but at the moment, she forgot that she was Ladybug. In fact, she couldn’t focus on anything that wasn’t the look on Chat’s face as he tried to smile and assure her that everything was all right. She had just broken his heart, and yet _he_ had apologized to _her._ As if his feelings were supposed to be a _burden._

Did he really think so lowly of himself?

‘ _I have to find him,_ ’ Ladybug thought, the pain in her chest overriding rational thought as she pushed through the bushes, unsure of where to even start in her search for Chat, especially since he was probably de-transformed now, but even so, she couldn’t leave things like this, couldn’t let him think that his feelings were unappreciated, that he was being a bother just by _loving_ her—

Before her half-formed thoughts of seeking Chat Noir out could come to fruition, her transformation broke, and she was Marinette once again. She had just enough sense to catch Tikki before she fell to the ground, exhausted.

“Marinette, what are you doing?” Tikki protested feebly, staring up at Marinette with her large, indigo eyes. “You just transformed out in the open! What if someone saw you?!”

“…I’m sorry, Tikki,” Marinette apologized belatedly, pulling herself out of her haze, bit by bit. She glanced up, biting her lip. Now she was paranoid—sure, it was the back of the school, and sure, she was surrounded by tall shrubs that hid her from anyone outside the school grounds, but still, if anyone had been loitering around behind the school or something, she would’ve been in serious trouble…but it seemed like things were fine. After all, homeroom was now in session…if anyone else was running late, they’d be rushing into the school right now, not hanging around back here—

“…Marinette?”

Marinette froze.

No.

_Not him!_

Quickly ushering Tikki into her purse with hurried, hushed apologies, Marinette whirled around.

“A-Adrien!” She squeaked, feeling her face flush hot at the sudden appearance of the boy of her affections. He stood before her, staring at her, his face pale. His eyes were rimmed red too, for some reason…but Marinette couldn’t focus on that now, she was too concerned about the fact that Adrien was _here_ of all places, which was very unlike him, because he was a model student, he shouldn’t be loafing around back _here_ , what was he doing?! “Uh, wh-what are you—”

“You’re Ladybug,” Adrien breathed, still staring at her with that wide-eyed look. Marinette felt her face drain of blood as well.

Oh no.

Oh god.

He had seen _everything._

Still, Marinette, for some reason _she_ didn’t even know, tried to play dumb.

“What? M-me? Ladybug?” She gave a laugh that was way too high-pitched, stopping quickly when she inhaled the wrong way and began to cough. “A-Adrien, what are you—?”

“I saw you,” Adrien cut across her, his eyes still way too intense as he stared at her, forcing her to look away from him. “I saw you de-transform just now. You’re _Ladybug!_ ”

“Shh!” Marinette hushed him, glancing around in a panic as she stepped forward, her hands folded in front of her. “Adrien, please, _please,_ you cannot tell _anyone._ This is a secret, you understand? No one can know, or they’ll be in danger! You can’t tell anyone, Adrien, please! Promise me you won’t tell!”

Adrien blinked, like he was surprised. Marinette bit her lip as she stared up at him, unashamed to show how desperate she was to keep this quiet. Hell, if she could erase memories, she’d make sure that he’d forget too, because if there was anything worse than her hurting Chat with her honest feelings, it was her hurting _Adrien_ just with the burden of knowledge. If word somehow got out…and Hawk Moth went after Adrien just because he was ‘close’ to Ladybug—

“ _Adrien,_ ” Marinette persisted when Adrien didn’t say anything, taking one of his hands and clutching it in between her own, holding them close to her chest as she stared up at him, trying to communicate with her eyes just how dire this situation was. “ _No one else can know._ Please, please, _please_ —”

“Okay,” Adrien said, interrupting Marinette’s begging; he raised his free hand, reaching towards her, as if he meant to pat her shoulder…but then he dropped the hand at the last minute. Instead, he gave her an assuring nod. “Your secret’s safe with me, Marinette. I promise.”

Marinette’s breath left her in a whoosh of relief. Thank _god._ No, thank Adrien.

“Thank you, Adrien,” she mumbled, giving him a weak smile. “I owe you so much for this.”

For reasons unknown to Marinette, Adrien began to turn red.

“Oh…no problem,” he mumbled, glancing away and rubbing the back of his neck. Belatedly, Marinette realized she was still clinging to his hand, and she hastily let go, feeling herself flush as well. There was an awkward moment in which they seemed to avoid each other’s gazes, shifting restlessly.

“Er…we’re…kind of late for homeroom…” Adrien mumbled after a moment, and Marinette groaned, smacking her forehead with the heel of her palm. Another tardy notice…her parents were going to _kill_ her.

As they both sprinted around the building to reach the front, Marinette gave Adrien a sidelong glance.

“Why are you late, Adrien? What were you doing back there, anyway?”

Adrien met her gaze for a moment as they crossed the threshold of their school and sprinted down the hall to their shared homeroom.

“I was looking for something,” he said vaguely, and then left it at that. It made Marinette curious, this vague explanation…but she didn’t have time to ponder over it; as soon as they entered their correct classroom, they were soundly scolded by the homeroom teacher and sent on their way as soon as it was time for their first class of the day. Alya linked her arm through Marinette’s and hurriedly marched her away, announcing in an unnecessarily loud voice that she needed to use the bathroom, but she wasn’t fooling Marinette: she was about to use their time to get to class to pry as much information as she could out of Marinette over why she was late and why she had walked in with Adrien Agreste, because she smelled blood and was on the hunt for every dirty detail she could find. Marinette sighed. She hated having to lie to Alya, but when the truth would be stranger than fiction for Alya to hear...

The back of Marinette’s neck tingled. She turned as Alya dragged her away, surprised when she met Adrien’s gaze across the busy hall. He blinked, apparently startled, and ducked his head, face blazing crimson. Marinette hastily turned away too, feeling herself flush once again.

Oh boy…she was going to have to have a conversation with him later, wasn’t she?

“Marinette? Hello? Girl, are you listening to me?”

“Huh? Oh! Oh, yeah, sure, whatever you say, Alya.”

“…So you’re _admitting_ that you and Adrien are late because you’re actually secret lovers who decided to sneak in a little early-morning personal time together?”

“What?!” Marinette squawked, drawing the attention of every person in the hall. As her face flushed redder, Alya laughed and patted her somewhat sympathetically on the back.

“Relax, girl, I’m just kidding.” Mischief glinted in the reporter’s hazel eyes. “You can tell me the _real_ story as soon as we get to an empty ladies’ room.”

Marinette sighed again, heavier this time.

At this rate, she was going to be late for her first class, too. If she had known this would be her day today, she never would have left her bed.

 

* * *

 

“Adrien? Adrien! You’re drifting off again!”

“…Huh?” Adrien replied belatedly, blinking himself back to the present, where he was _supposed_ to be modeling some new fashion for his father’s company, but he couldn’t focus. Not only did he not care about whatever he was modeling—some clothes—but he found that he couldn’t care any _less_ about modeling today, surpassing his usual low to medium-level hum of apathy.

It was _incredibly hard_ to sit and stand and _pose_ right now, knowing what he knew. Even as he tried to focus on something else, he couldn’t stop thinking about it:

He couldn’t deny that Ladybug’s rejection had hurt. If he was being honest with himself, a small part of him suspected it was a possibility—she was so _incredible,_ what would she want with someone like him?—but he had still hoped, because…well, because he couldn’t help it. After three years of working beside her, learning about her, growing closer with her, Chat Noir only fell more and more in love with his Lady, and even if it was wishful thinking, he had hoped that some part of her, no matter how small, had grown to love him, too…

_“…But I’m in love with someone else.”_

And then everything had been nothing but pain.

Of course she already had someone. _Of course._ How stupid was he to possibly hope for otherwise?

Somehow, he had managed to make it to his _lyceé_ after that. Though he already knew he was late, he hadn’t been able to make himself move from behind the school building. Even Plagg didn’t have any smartass remarks to make once he had seen the tears pouring down Adrien’s face; instead, he had disappeared into Adrien’s shirt collar as usual, without comment as Adrien had grieved over his shattered heart…for about five seconds.

And then, quite suddenly, _she_ appeared.

Adrien had been stunned into silence; just what was _she_ doing here? Was there another akuma causing trouble that he hadn’t been aware of because he was so lost in his own grief?

Ladybug hadn’t moved for a few seconds as Adrien stood off to the side, hidden between bushes, staring at her through the gap. She hadn’t noticed him, probably because she had seemed to be wrestling with something within the confines of her own mind. He had been trying to decide how to escape the area without her seeing him—because the _last_ thing he wanted was for her to see him like this, whether or not she knew he was Chat Noir—but then…her transformation had come undone.

And he _had_ tried not to look. He had even shut his eyes and turned away, for even though she had broken his heart, she still deserved the privacy of her secret identity, no matter what.

But then—

_“Marinette, what are you doing? You just transformed out in the open! What if someone saw you?!”_

_“…I’m sorry, Tikki.”_

Marinette.

_Ladybug was Marinette._

Even hours later, Adrien was still trying to wrap his mind around it, and not having much luck. So how could he possibly care about something as stupid as modelling right now?

“Adrien, take a break,” Nathalie directed when the photographer let out his fifth frustrated sigh of that shoot. Adrien was barely aware of them as Nathalie tugged said photographer to the side and they began to speak in hushed tones, probably to work out a game plan to try and get Adrien interested in what he was supposed to be doing.

But again, Adrien was disinterested in everything but the swirling thoughts in his mind. He wandered off set, towards the snack table, staring blankly at the healthy options he was allowed to eat to maintain his trim, model figure. Hmph. Maybe later tonight he’d sneak over to Marinette’s and take a few croissants to go—

Adrien felt himself straighten as he realized what he was thinking.

Wait…he couldn’t go to _Marinette’s._ She was Ladybug! To just saunter over there like nothing was wrong, like his whole world hadn’t been sent spiraling into madness due to this secret he had accidentally learned—

…Wait.

Two. He had learned _two_ secrets in the past twenty-four hours:

The first was that Marinette was in love with him.

The second…that she was _Ladybug._

Which meant…the reason _Ladybug_ wasn’t interested in him was because Ladybug was _Marinette_ , and _Marinette_ wasn’t interested in Chat Noir, because—because—!

Oh god.

_How was he only realizing this just now?!_

“Nathalie!” Adrien shouted as he whirled around, suddenly even _more_ jittery than he already was. Nathalie jumped when he shouted, and she turned to him with wide eyes, fixing her glasses, which had fallen askew when she jolted.

“Adrien, what—”

“I’m done with my break now,” Adrien announced, striding confidently forward to take his place back on set. “Sorry for holding everything up. But I’m ready to focus, so let’s finish this shoot.”

Nathalie peered at Adrien as the photographer declared “Finally!” and began to set up his camera once again.

“You seem eager to finish,” Nathalie said after a pause. Adrien gave a shrug he hoped looked as lighthearted as he meant it to.

“Just want to make up for lost time,” he said with a respectful nod to the photographer.

‘ _And I wanna get out of here as soon as possible. I have a certain Buginette I need to see…_ ’

If Nathalie saw the scheming gleam Adrien tried (in vain) to keep from his eyes, she made no comment on it.

 

* * *

 

Marinette was in serious danger of chewing her bottom lip off.

Ever since that morning, she had been trying to get Adrien alone so they could talk about what happened…but he had left halfway through the day for a photoshoot, and she hadn’t seen him since. Which meant her anxiety was an eleven right about now, maybe a twelve.

She paced circles around her room, eating little at dinner because her stomach would not accommodate food as well as the dozens of knots that had recently taken residence in there. Her parents knew something was wrong, no doubt, but she couldn’t take their concerned questions and retreated to her room for the night, just pacing around and around, around and around, chewing on her thumb nail when she wasn’t biting into her lip.

What was she supposed to do? Adrien knew her secret. Adrien, the love of her life _Adrien_ knew that she was Ladybug! Again, what was she supposed to _do_ about this?!

“Tikki, what should I do?” Marinette asked her kwami, who sat on her computer desk, merely watching her. When addressed, Tikki blinked her large indigo eyes, frowning slightly.

“…I don’t know,” she admitted, floating slowly off the desk to approach Marinette. “What do you _want_ to do, Marinette?”

Marinette stared at her kwami. That…was not a question she was expecting.

“W-what do you mean?” Marinette questioned, staring at Tikki as her kwami floated in front of her, suddenly looking cryptic. “What _can_ I do? Adrien knows! Nobody’s supposed to know, but _Adrien_ does! What am I supposed to do?!”

“What do you want to do?” Tikki repeated herself. Marinette stared at her some more, nonplused. What was up with Tikki?

“…Are you mad at me?” Marinette asked, finding the thought odd, for she could not remember, in their three years of working together, a time where Tikki was actually mad at her…unless it was something involving a lack of cookies for a prolonged period of time…

Tikki blinked.

“…No,” she replied, but the reply came too slowly, and Marinette’s teeth sank further into her lip.

“You _are_ mad at me,” she sighed, cupping her hands and bringing them higher, offering Tikki a seat. The kwami consented to sink down, resting in Marinette’s palms and still looking up at her with that unfathomable gaze. “Tikki, I’m _so_ sorry. I really didn’t mean to be discovered like that. I was just…with Chat and everything—”

“You need to be more careful, Marinette,” Tikki interrupted, her frown growing. “I know it was Adrien who saw you, but what if it was someone else? Someone who wouldn’t bother keeping it a secret? Or worse: what if it was someone who promised not to tell anyone, but then let it slip to someone they knew by accident? Word of mouth travels fast, Marinette. I think it’s okay to trust Adrien, but this cannot happen a second time. Do you understand?”

Marinette bowed her head. If she had been told, about four years ago, that she would one day be scolded by a ladybug-like fairy and actually feel ashamed of herself, that would have been a day she would have researched how to have someone committed to a sanitarium.

Now, however…

“I’m very sorry, Tikki,” she apologized again, sincerely meaning it. Tikki must have sensed this, for she finally smiled and buzzed up out of Marinette’s hands, nuzzling her cheek against hers.

“Don’t look so guilty, Marinette. I’m only worried.” She floated down onto Marinette’s shoulder, peering up at her in concern. “What _do_ you want to do about the fact that Adrien knows?”

Aaaaaand back to the lip biting.

“I don’t know,” Marinette admitted, exhausted. She flopped down onto her _chaise longue_ , rubbing the side of her temple with a hand. “I mean…it’s _Adrien_. I know he’s a fan of Ladybug—he and Alya geek out about her all the time. But I don’t know how he’s taking the fact that Ladybug is, well…me.”

Tikki tilted her head curiously.

“And just what’s wrong with you being Ladybug?”

“Nothing,” Marinette sighed, “but…I don’t think anyone would expect _me_ to be Ladybug, if they knew.”

“Why not?”

“Oh, you know why not, Tikki. Ladybug is…miraculous! And I’m—”

“—Also miraculous,” Tikki interrupted, the words kind, but there was an unrelenting note of steel in her voice as well. Marinette glanced down at her, a little amused and a little put-out.

“I think you’re overestimating me, Tikki.”

“I am not,” Tikki replied calmly, yet stubbornly. “It’s true that as Ladybug, you can do many things that you wouldn’t be able to do as Marinette. But the only thing that changes is your appearance and those magical abilities. But everything else: Ladybug’s kindness, her courage, her ability to think her way through _any_ situation…that’s all _you_ , Marinette.”

Marinette felt her face warm, and she smiled. This wasn’t the first time she and Tikki had had a conversation like this: in her three years of being Ladybug, Marinette had experienced nearly every crisis of identity in the book that came with leading double lives. And Tikki had talked her through each and every one, ending with the same assertion: everything that was Ladybug was just Marinette in a mask, and therefore, without Marinette, there was no Ladybug. She repeated this assertion whenever Marinette began to doubt herself, and though Marinette sometimes had trouble believing in this too, it was always nice to know that Tikki would always be in her corner, no matter what.

Before Marinette could thank her kwami for the pick-me-up, however, a sudden tapping sounded through her room. Immediately, Marinette’s head snapped up, her gaze going to the skylight above her bed. There was a telling shadow up there, and a quick glance at the clock told her that she knew exactly who had come knocking at her window at this time of night.

Oh boy. What was he doing here?

Marinette thought briefly about pretending she wasn’t home…but then realized that all he would have to do was peek into one of her other windows, and he’d see her, and then he’d think she was avoiding him. And, considering everything she had put him through today, Marinette wasn’t about to give him more heartache. Besides, this was her chance to check on him, make sure he was doing okay…

“Hide, Tikki,” Marinette instructed her kwami, as she always did when a certain cat boy came to visit. Tikki zoomed off to the cookie stash hidden in Marinette’s room as Marinette ascended the ladder up to her loft, climbing onto her bed and pushing the skylight open.

“Good evening, Chat Noir,” Marinette greeted the cat boy at her window, smiling as she tugged herself out onto the balcony. “I wasn’t expecting you tonight, since you came to visit last night…what happened to your alternating schedule?”

“I wanted to see my princess tonight,” said Chat Noir as he held out a hand. Marinette took it, and he helped pull her to her feet. She ended up standing very close to him in the process; she paused, taking in his expression, anxiously searching for signs of distress…but oddly enough, he seemed fine. Happy, even.

…Huh. Either Marinette was getting bad at reading him, or he had gotten over Ladybug’s rejection a lot faster than Marinette would have thought possible…

As she tried (in vain) to search for some hidden sadness lurking in Chat’s eyes, it took her a moment to realize that he was staring at her just as intently, his cat’s eyes roaming over her face, as if he was looking for something.

Marinette raised her eyebrows.

“What?”

Chat blinked, apparently jarred by the sound of her voice. He quickly glanced away, dropping her hand.

“Oh, nothing…” After a moment, he glanced askance at her, a corner of his mouth tilted up. “…You’re lovely in the moonlight, Princess.”

Marinette stared at him.

…Okay, that was…weird. A couple years ago, there was a time when Marinette had believed that Chat Noir was a notorious flirt, and that he’d purr for anyone who consented to scratch his back. But that was before she realized that he was in love with her—er, with Ladybug. So, hearing such a _blatantly_ flirtatious line escape from his mouth while she was _Marinette?_ Beyond strange.

“Uh…thanks?” Clearing her throat, Marinette stepped around Chat and approached her balcony railing, resting against it as she always did when Chat Noir came over to play. “So…yeah, like I said: wasn’t expecting you, so I don’t have any snacks or anything. Sorry.”

“That’s fine. I don’t _always_ come to you for food, you know,” Chat teased, leaping up onto the balcony railing next to Marinette, who rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

“Sure you don’t.”

It was another lovely Parisian night, in Marinette’s book: the temperature was moderate, and the city was lit up underneath her own personal perch. There were clouds rolling in, however, obscuring patches of sky and blocking the stars from view. Marinette frowned. Although she didn’t mind the rain, she didn’t like the thought of Chat running home in it. It was probably best to keep this visit short, then.

“What brings you by, Chat?”

Chat Noir shrugged, kicking his long legs lazily as he sat upon Marinette’s balcony railing.

“Like I said, I felt like seeing you tonight.” He crossed one long leg over the other, suddenly smirking. “Didn’t you miss me?”

Marinette huffed a laugh.

“I saw you thi—uh, last night, remember?” she reminded him, narrowly catching herself before she said something dire. For some reason, Chat’s smirk grew, his cat’s eyes glittering with mischief.

“Did you dream about me, too?” He purred, leaning over, his face _dangerously_ close to Marinette’s, who stared at him in disbelief once again. Seriously, what was he doing?

Automatically reacting, she eased him back with a finger to his nose.

“What’s with you?” She wanted to know, dropping her hand and folding her arms while giving him a quizzical look. “Did you blow through your whole stash of catnip tonight or something?”

Chat Noir grinned.

“Ah, sorry for invading your _purr_ sonal space, Princess,” he punned, and Marinette groaned. “It’s just really easy to be myself around you.”

“Well, who else would you be?” Marinette pointed out. Chat seemed to ponder this question for a moment as he stared at her.

“…What if I _was_ someone else?” He asked, his cat’s ears twitching as he cocked his head to the side. “After all, I could be a completely different person under this mask.”

…Okay, seriously, what was with him tonight?

“I doubt it,” Marinette said blatantly, watching with some amusement as Chat’s eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t think putting on a mask gives someone a whole new personality. Even if you don’t act like a ridiculous flirt in your civilian life, that still must be a part of who you are, somewhere inside of you.”

Chat pouted.

“Ridiculous flirt?” He quoted in what Marinette considered to be an overly injured-sounding voice. “That hurts, Princess.”

“The truth hurts sometimes,” she replied with a nonchalant shrug, giggling at the exaggerated pout Chat wore. To take the sting out of her words, she reached over and ran her hand through his hair, taking care to scratch behind his ears. She had learned a while ago that Chat was weak to head scratches, and it was always funny to watch him turn into putty with just a few strokes of her fingers through that shaggy mess he called hair.

Sure enough, the minute her fingers made contact with his scalp, he was relaxing, pressing his head into her hand with his eyes half-closed, a low rumble sounding in his throat.

Marinette laughed.

“Good Kitty,” she teased him, scratching briefly under his chin before she withdrew her hand, valiantly ignoring the whimper of protest and the pleading look he shot her a second later. “Seriously, Chat—are you gonna tell me why you came over, or do I have to guess?”

Chat sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

“Well…you remember what we talked about last night? About me telling Ladybug how I felt because you told me the name of your somebody?”

“I didn’t say you had to take that seriously, Chat,” Marinette reminded him, withholding a sigh. Chat nodded, his eyes on Marinette’s balcony floor.

“I know…but I wanted to. I suppose…I kind of needed the excuse. I mean, for three years, I’ve been in love with Ladybug, but other than the one time I tried, I never could say to her how I felt…until today.”

Chat glanced askance at her, silent. Marinette wondered what he was staring at until she realized that he must be waiting for her to ask how it went. Ugh.

“…So?” She asked, her voice quiet as she carefully watched his face, teeth pressing into her bottom lip once again. “How’d it go?”

Chat chuckled mysteriously, turning his face up towards the clouding sky. He was… _smiling._

“I was rejected. There’s already someone else she loves,” he said calmly and without _any_ trace of the distraught look she had seen in his eyes earlier that morning. Marinette was baffled. He had looked ready to cry this morning…but now, he was fine? Was there something she was missing here?

“…You look happy about it,” she commented, raising an eyebrow when Chat looked at her again. “I don’t get it. I thought Ladybug was the love of your life?”

“She is,” Chat replied firmly with a bob of his blonde head. “And as the love of my life, I want her to be happy with the love of _her_ life.”

“…That’s…very kind,” Marinette said, initially shocked. But then she thought about it…and then she realized that this was not out of character for Chat Noir at all. She had lost count over how many times he had put himself in harm’s way just to protect her, both as Ladybug and Marinette, and after de-akumatizing a victim, he was usually the first to make sure that they were all right. Naturally, someone with such a sweet and caring nature would deem it prudent to put his love’s happiness over his own…

Marinette frowned.

“…But it’s not fair,” she spoke suddenly, her hands closing convulsively into fists. “You’re a good person, Chat, and a good superhero. You deserve happiness, too.”

Chat blinked, looking taken aback at Marinette’s sudden assertion for a moment.

“Oh…thank you, Princess,” he replied, a sheepish glint appearing in his eyes before he glanced away from her. “But it’s not that simple, you know. I can’t make Ladybug love me…and I’m fine with that.”

“So find someone else,” Marinette insisted, moving in front of Chat so that he’d have a harder time avoiding her gaze. “Just because Ladybug didn’t work out doesn’t mean that you’ll never find love, Chat. There are plenty of people out there that would be lucky to have someone like you.”

Chat blinked again, staring at Marinette. She couldn’t be completely sure, since his mask was blocking most of his face, but…was he blushing…?

“Uh…you seem eager for me to move on, Princess,” he remarked after clearing his throat, giving her a smile meant to be sly…but somehow, it was coming off bashful instead. And it was… _cute._ “I just got rejected this morning, you know.”

Now Marinette blushed. Shit, she was being callous, wasn’t she? True, Chat seemed oddly casual about the fact that Ladybug had broken his heart, which made Marinette feel like _she_ had been upset over it for nothing…but he could just be putting up a front, couldn’t he? Even though she knew he never really bothered to hide his emotions—

‘ _Focus, Marinette._ ’

Heeding her inner voice, Marinette cleared her throat and set about doing damage control.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like I was rushing you. If you need to grieve, then take all the time you need to grieve.” Marinette laid a hand on Chat Noir’s arm, meeting his gaze with her earnest one. “I just think it would be a mistake to only love Ladybug forever, because somewhere out there, there could be someone who’s already in love with _you_ , and you just don’t know it.”

Chat’s cat’s eyes gleamed, his lips quirking into a small smile.

“…Thank you, Marinette,” he said softly, and Marinette, without fully knowing why, blushed harder. Acutely aware of the fact that she was still touching him, she drew her hand back, folding them both casually in front of her as Chat shot her a question: “But what about you? What if…your Adrien…what if he already has someone he loves?”

Marinette bit her lip. To be honest…it was a distinct possibility, one she was uncomfortable considering, always banished back to the back of her mind whenever it crept into her conscious thoughts. After all, she was very aware of all the girls that had confessed to Adrien only to be rejected over the years. Though Marinette wished she wouldn’t, Alya always made it her business to interrogate him after these rejections, trying to pull information out of him to see if Marinette stood a chance at all. Adrien always dodged said questions with a resilient “none of your business, Alya”, usually followed by an apology and a vague explanation about how the rejected girl just ‘wasn’t what he was looking for’. If Marinette was honest with herself, she was almost ninety percent sure that Adrien already had someone he liked…but as for who it was…well, of course, she _hoped_ it was her, but considering the fact that he never treated her as anything more than a friend—

“…Well,” Marinette began after a silent moment, smiling in a helpless fashion, “I would just have to accept it, wouldn’t I? I want Adrien to be happy, too…even if it’s not with me.”

Chat stared at her, something…changing in his gaze. Marinette stared back, watching the look evolve into something that _burned._ The heat was felt in her face as well as she stood there, transfixed by his gaze. Why was he looking at her like that?

“…What?” She asked, her voice coming out a whisper rather than the normal volume she had just been speaking in. …Huh. That was weird…

Chat didn’t answer at first. He just stared at her. With every second that passed with him just looking at her, Marinette felt her face grow hotter and hotter. God, what _was_ this?

“What?” She asked him again, a little louder this time…though her voice had climbed an octave higher. Chat slowly blinked.

“…Nothing,” he replied after a moment. Marinette was about to call him out for lying, but then he did something that shocked her into silence: his hand brushed one of her burning cheeks, tucking her dark hair behind her ear for her. Such an action, though it was simple and probably meaningless, rendered Marinette speechless. She stared at Chat, lips parted in surprise, as he smiled the most _charming_ smile she had ever seen on him. Or was it only more charming now because she was paying attention…?

“…You know, I always knew you were beautiful, Marinette,” he admitted, his clawed hand gripping her chin now, the warmth of it somehow distinctly felt through Marinette’s blush. And his eyes still burned so hot, that smoldering look doing things to Marinette she hadn’t even known were _possible_. And…was he…getting closer…?

“But…somehow, tonight, you’re radiant.” He tilted his head to the side. “I wonder why that is…?”

Marinette wanted to say something witty to defuse the sudden _charge_ in the air, but couldn’t—her throat was too dry for her to push words through, and her mind was full of fuzz anyway, like something in there had disconnected, and she could only run on auto-pilot—

Her toe suddenly hit something, jolting Marinette. In the back of her hazy mind, she realized something—Chat hadn’t been the one moving forward. It was her who had moved to him.

Chat’s thumb stroked her chin, and she shivered.

Oh…oh _god._ Was she… _enjoying_ this…?

“C-Chat?”

“Princess?”

Marinette swallowed. This…this was mildly concerning. While it was true that she had always been close to Chat, she had never been _this_ close. And to be thinking the half-formed thoughts she was thinking felt _terrible_ , like she was betraying Adrien.

And Chat was her partner, her _friend_ , someone who had suffered heartbreak just this morning—heartbreak at _her_ hands—even if he seemed to be taking it better than she had thought. Marinette should _not_ act on this wild impulse that was suddenly trying to take over, because it would _not_ be fair to Chat, and she would only _hate_ herself in the morning.

But…

Thunder boomed overhead, surprising them both. They glanced up just in time for the first few raindrops to fall. Chat scrunched up his nose, shaking his head to rid himself of the unwanted moisture. Marinette laughed at the displeased look on his face. Silly, adorable cat boy.

“You should head home,” she told him, carefully taking a step back. The interruption of the rain had cleared her head, and though there was still a part of her that really, _really_ wanted to see if Chat’s lips were as soft as they looked…it was time for him to go. She would sort through these confusing feelings later, when he wasn’t around.

“I suppose,” he admitted, hopping down from Marinette’s balcony railing. “I’d be in a lot of trouble if I got sick just by hanging out in the rain all night.”

“Want to borrow my umbrella?” Marinette offered. For some reason, this made Chat Noir grin.

“That’s all right, Princess. I wouldn’t want to take something so precious from you. Your Adrien gave it to you, didn’t he?”

Marinette blushed. Oh yeah…she _had_ told him that, hadn’t she?

“Still, if you need it—”

“Don’t fuss, Marinette,” Chat forestalled her with a patient smile. “I’ll be fine.”

“If you say so,” she muttered. A moment passed in which they just stared at each other…and then she offered him her hand, because she knew how this went by now: it was tradition for him to kiss her hand just before he departed, simply because he was cheesy like that. And Marinette was used to it at this point, so now he never had to ask; her hand just went to him automatically as they were exchanging goodbyes.

Chat grinned before lifting her hand to his lips, this kiss a little more…tender…than his usual ones. Marinette felt her face warm, and her sudden yearning to kiss him grew stronger. She hastily smothered it, relieved when Chat released her hand. As the rain pattered here and there on her balcony, she waited, expecting him to wish her a good night…but he didn’t. Thunder rumbled overhead once again, but he barely seemed to notice.

“…Tell me something, Marinette,” he asked after a moment, his cat’s ears twitching as he tilted his head to the side, staring at her with a strange, searching look. “You said there were people out there that would be lucky to have me, right? …If you didn’t have your Adrien…would you consider yourself one of those lucky people?”

Marinette stared at him.

What…was he asking her…? He wasn’t…trying to get over Ladybug by trying to date _her_ , was he…?

Her expression must have been concerning, for Chat blinked and held up his hands.

“I’m just curious, Princess,” he assured her, chancing a grin. “It’s a cat thing, you know…in fact, you don’t have to answer—”

“No,” Marinette blurted out too fast, cringing when she realized how that sounded. “I mean, no, it’s okay. I…well, uh, I…”

Marinette gazed up at Chat, taking in his curious expression as he watched her…an expression tinged with anxiousness. She didn’t know if it was just mere curiosity that drove his question, but either way, she wanted to give him an honest answer. And, as she thought about everything that made Chat Noir Chat Noir—his kindness, his courage, those silly puns she pretended to hate but actually found him very clever for, the way he followed his heart without question, even if there was a chance of him getting hurt—she found that her answer was not all that surprising.

“…Yes,” she admitted after a minute, the admission causing her to blush, but she didn’t dare look away from Chat, just so he could see just how serious she was. “If…if I didn’t have feelings for Adrien…and if we, um, got to know each other better…I think, maybe…we could have something here. Something…wonderful.”

A slow, delighted grin crossed Chat’s face, and Marinette wanted to _die_ , he was so cute. If he did indeed ask her out right now, would she _really_ have the strength to say no?

“Miraculous, even?” He asked, mischief glinting in his eyes. Marinette huffed and rolled her eyes, the gestures of annoyance ruined by the smile that was forming on her lips.

“Sure, if you want to say that.”

The call of the storm beckoned once again. Marinette and Chat Noir glanced up at the pitch black sky, and then once more at each other. The rain was beginning to pick up, and drops of it weighed down Chat’s hair, making it even messier. But the messy look was endearing on him, Marinette was beginning to notice.

“I value your friendship first, though, Chat,” Marinette made sure to let him know as she gave his chest a light shove. “And as your friend, I’m telling you to go home before you get soaked.”

Chat chuckled, shaking his head like a wet dog would. Marinette squealed as some stray rain droplets hit her due to this action. She made a break for it, but Chat followed, roaring comically as he chased her, pretending to hit rain drops at her even though the both of them were getting plenty wet by choosing to stay out in the rain. The chase ended when Marinette found herself cornered, trapped in between Chat Noir and the balcony railing. She briefly contemplated climbing onto the railing…but then decided against it. She wasn’t Ladybug at the moment, and just one wrong slip could cost her her life…and she wasn’t about to dangle herself in front of Fate like that.

“Gotcha!”

Marinette squeaked as strong arms snaked around her, and Chat’s voice was laughing in her ear.

“It’s all right, Princess, I’m not going to eat you,” he teased, allowing her to turn around in his arms to face him. His Cheshire grin in place, he added, “Well, unless I turn into a _werecat_...but it’s not a full moon tonight, so I guess you’re lucky.”

“You’re so silly,” Marinette huffed, and Chat laughed again, the sound as bright as a summer’s day. Marinette felt something warm fluttering in her stomach, which increased in size when Chat bumped his forehead against hers, still chuckling to himself. The laughter died when he opened his eyes, meeting Marinette’s gaze again. She watched his grin fade as he stared back at her, and she wondered if that speculative gaze of his meant the same thing she was feeling right now.

They were unbearably close, and yet, somehow, not close enough. Chat seemed to think so, too—slowly, carefully, he brushed his nose against Marinette’s, and a shiver that had nothing to do with the rain tingled all the way down her spine. But he stopped there, watching her with those careful eyes, as if he was afraid that he was crossing a line.

And he was, wasn’t he? They both were—Chat had just been rejected by the love of his life this morning, and the love of Marinette’s life had just discovered one of her biggest secrets this morning. The situation was _beyond_ complicated at this point, and they couldn’t really afford to make things any more difficult based on these strange impulses alone. Marinette knew that…

And yet…

Marinette didn’t let herself think about it. Instead, she just did it, closing her eyes and closing the small distance left between her and Chat, pressing her lips to his. For a moment he paused, and Marinette began to worry that her advancements were unwanted after all…but then his arms tightened, pulling her closer as he kissed her back. After that, it felt perfectly natural for Marinette to slip her arms around his neck, a soft sigh escaping her as she realized his lips really _were_ as soft as they looked. Rain began to fall heavier on them, but Marinette didn’t care—all she could focus on was the feel of Chat around and against her, the rapid pounding of her heart, the spinning in her head, as if the world was whirling around and around, too fast, but in a good way—

There was another crash of thunder, and it finally startled them enough to break apart, hitting their foreheads against each other and letting out separate groans of pain, swears, and hurried apologies. Marinette dared to glance up, meeting Chat’s gaze. It still burned the way it did a few minutes ago, but it was gentler now, a warm glow rather than a raging fire. Marinette’s heart thumped unevenly.

She… _might_ be in trouble now.

“Good night, Chat,” Marinette said, sliding her arms off him. Chat smiled and leaned forward. Marinette held her breath—oh god, was he going to kiss her again? He couldn’t, she’d turn into jelly if he did!—but he passed her face, his lips at her ear as he whispered:

“Good night…My Lady.”

Marinette froze.

Did…he just—?

Before she could say anything or process what had just happened, Chat jumped onto the balcony beside her, extending his staff before he leaped into the air, and though Marinette whirled around to call him back, he disappeared into the darkness within seconds, and she was left alone, standing out in the rain.

Her hair and clothes were wet, and she would soon be soaked to the bone if she wasn’t careful. But she didn’t care. Idly, her hand reached up to touch the ear Chat had just whispered into, her fingertips brushing against her earring.

‘ _He knows. He knows I’m Ladybug._ ’

Scratch her earlier statement: she was _definitely_ in trouble now.


End file.
